Chinese zodiac
Goat
Goat — Wei, the 8th of the twelve earthly branches. It comes round every twelve years, each time with the next of the five elements, so the same animal and element meet again every sixty years.
The character 羊 means goat and sheep alike, and English sources call this year the Goat, the Sheep or the Ram with equal confidence. Nothing in the Chinese settles it. Japan and Korea picture a sheep; Vietnam keeps the goat (dê).
The Goat's earthly branch
The branch, Wei (未), is older than the Goat and names more than a year: it is also one of the twelve double hours of the traditional day, a month of the Chinese solar year and a point of the compass.
- Branch
- Wei 未The 8th of twelve. The animal is written 羊.
- Polarity
- YinPaired only with the yin stems, so every Goat year starts in an odd-numbered calendar year.
- Element of the branch
- EarthThe Goat's own, the same every year. The element in the table below belongs to the year.
- Double hour
- 13:00–15:00Read today off the local clock. Traditionally kept by the sun, so noon fell in the middle of the Horse's double hour.
- Solar month opens
- 7 July 2026At Xiaoshu, Minor Heat, when the sun reaches 105°. Beijing time, that has been 6, 7 or 8 July in every year from 1920 to 2026.
- Bearing
- 210°Between south and west, counting clockwise from the Rat at due north.
- Triad
- Rabbit, Goat, PigThe three branches four apart, which the tradition groups under Wood.
- Opposite
- OxSix places on: the opposite hour, month and bearing.
The hours, bearings, triads and branch elements are the standard correspondences of the earthly branches. The month dates are worked out here from the sun's position, on the Beijing calendar, for every year from 1920 to 2026. What the solar terms are →
A January or early-February birthday can belong to the year before
The Year of the Goat does not begin on 1 January. In 2015 it began on 19 February. A baby born on 1 January 2015 — before that date — would be a Horse, not a Goat.
The new year falls between 21 January and 20 February, and until it arrives the previous animal is still in charge. Each year's own date is in the table below.
Every year of the Goat since 1920
| Year | Began on | Element |
|---|---|---|
| 1931 | 17 February | Metal Goat |
| 1943 | 5 February | Water Goat |
| 1955 | 24 January | Wood Goat |
| 1967 | 9 February | Fire Goat |
| 1979 | 28 January | Earth Goat |
| 1991 | 15 February | Metal Goat |
| 2003 | 1 February | Water Goat |
| 2015 | 19 February | Wood Goat |
The animal repeats every twelve years; the element repeats every ten, so the same pairing — such as Wood Goat — is sixty years apart.