Fire Goat Year: Dates and Meaning

When it starts

The lunar new year falls on 6 February 2027 and the Goat year runs to 25 January 2028. The year used in charts begins two days earlier, at the Start of Spring on 4 February 2027.

So someone born on 4 or 5 February 2027 can be a Goat on one site and a Horse on another. Both ways of counting are old. Our Chinese Zodiac tool shows you both.

What kind of year it is

Ding is yin fire and Wei is yin earth, the sign of the Goat. Fire feeds earth, so the stem supports the branch. Its Na Yin is Heavenly River Water, which is why the Xie Ji table heads the year with fire, earth and water together.

The word for this animal covers both goats and sheep, so English writers use either. The cycle of sixty repeats, so the last Ding Wei year was 1967 and the next will be 2087.

Who is a Goat

Goat years in living memory are 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015 and 2027. If you were born in January or early February, check the date, because the sign changes at the start of the year and not on 1 January.