1943 Chinese zodiac sign: Water Goat

Chinese year 1943 begins on Friday, February 5, 1943, and ends on Monday, January 24, 1944, the day before the Year of the Wood Monkey begins. It has 354 days, or 12 lunar months: each month starts on a new moon, so it is 29 or 30 days long. The next leap year, with a thirteenth month, comes in 1944.

The year opens with the new moon on Thursday, February 4, 1943 at 7:29 p.m. ET. In Beijing it is already February 5, 7:29 a.m. China Standard Time, and the Beijing date sets New Year's Day, so the new year begins on February 5. The total solar eclipse takes place at this same new moon.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Friday, February 19, 1943. The year's first full moon falls on Saturday, February 20, 1943 at 1:45 a.m. ET. The partial lunar eclipse takes place at this same full moon.

It is year 20 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1924 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 癸未 (guǐwèi): the heavenly stem 癸 gives the element and the earthly branch 未 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 1943 begins not at the lunar New Year but at the moment of lìchūn (立春, “start of spring”), when the Sun reaches 315° of ecliptic longitude: on Thursday, February 4, 1943 at 12:40 p.m. Eastern Time. That is one day before Chinese New Year, so anyone born between that moment and February 4 still has the Water Horse sign in the lunar calendar but already the Water Goat sign in Ba Zi.

This page and the calculator give your sign by the lunar calendar.

The Goat, also called the Sheep or the Ram because its Chinese name, 羊 (yáng), means both goat and sheep, is the sign of sensitivity and imagination. It is gentle and empathetic, with the soul of an artist.

Intuition, flexibility and a gift for persuasion. Water softens a sign and teaches it to go with the flow.

The Water element covers two years in a row, 1942 (yang) and 1943 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1932–1933, next in 1952–1953.

The Water Goat is the most empathetic version of this sign. Water deepens its intuition, so it senses other people's moods and often becomes its friends' confidant. It is gentle and adapts easily. It is also easily swayed, and setting boundaries is the hardest thing of all for it.

In 2026, people born in 1943 turn 83 years old. The Year of the Fire Horse is running now, which tradition counts as a secret friend's year for the Goat. People born in 1943 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2027, when they turn 84 years old.

The Goat comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1943, the Water Goat, returns every 60 years: in 1883, 1943 and 2003.