1955 Chinese zodiac sign: Wood Goat

Chinese year 1955 begins on Monday, January 24, 1955, and ends on Saturday, February 11, 1956, the day before the Year of the Fire Monkey begins. It has a full 384 days, because it is a leap year with 13 lunar months; the next one comes in 1957. The Chinese calendar adds the extra month roughly every two or three years so that it doesn't drift away from the seasons.

The year opens with the new moon on Sunday, January 23, 1955 at 8:07 p.m. ET. In Beijing it is already January 24, 9:07 a.m. China Standard Time, and the Beijing date sets New Year's Day, so the new year begins on January 24.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Monday, February 7, 1955. The year's first full moon falls on Sunday, February 6, 1955 at 8:43 p.m. ET.

It is year 32 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1924 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 乙未 (yǐwèi): the heavenly stem 乙 gives the element and the earthly branch 未 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 1955 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 Friday, February 4, 1955 at 9:17 a.m. Eastern Time. That is 11 days after Chinese New Year, so anyone born between January 24 and that moment already has the Wood Goat sign in the lunar calendar but still the Wood Horse 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.

Growth, curiosity and cooperation. Wood brings a gardener's patience: it builds slowly, with an eye on what will grow in the years ahead.

The Wood element covers two years in a row, 1954 (yang) and 1955 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1944–1945, next in 1964–1965.

The Wood Goat has a big heart. Wood adds kindness, patience and a wish to help, and it also develops the Goat's artistic talent. It likes harmony around it and works hard to keep it. That can make it too trusting, and people who play on its good nature know how to take advantage.

In 2026, people born in 1955 turn 71 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 1955 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2027, when they turn 72 years old.

The Goat comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1955, the Wood Goat, returns every 60 years: in 1895, 1955 and 2015.