1979 Chinese zodiac sign: Earth Goat

Chinese year 1979 begins on Sunday, January 28, 1979, and ends on Friday, February 15, 1980, the day before the Year of the Metal Monkey begins. It has a full 384 days, because it is a leap year with 13 lunar months; the next one comes in 1982. 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 28, 1979 at 1:20 a.m. ET, which is 2:20 p.m. China Standard Time, so the date is the same in New York and in Beijing.

The Lantern Festival, which closes the New Year celebrations, comes on the fifteenth day of the first month, so on Sunday, February 11, 1979. The year's first full moon falls on Sunday, February 11, 1979 at 9:40 p.m. ET.

It is year 56 of the sixty-year cycle that began in 1924 with the Wood Rat. In Chinese this year is called 己未 (jǐwèi): the heavenly stem 己 gives the element and the earthly branch 未 the animal.

In Ba Zi astrology, the Four Pillars of Destiny, the year 1979 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 Sunday, February 4, 1979 at 5:12 a.m. Eastern Time. That is 7 days after Chinese New Year, so anyone born between January 28 and that moment already has the Earth Goat sign in the lunar calendar but still the Earth 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.

Stability, common sense and care for the people close to you. Earth steadies every sign and makes it more realistic.

The Earth element covers two years in a row, 1978 (yang) and 1979 (yin), and comes back every ten years: before that in 1968–1969, next in 1988–1989.

Earth is the Goat's fixed element, and the Earth Goat combines sensitivity with common sense. It is calmer, more practical and more independent than other Goats, and it looks after its loved ones and the security of its home. It can do a lot with very little. Sometimes, though, it worries about the future more than it needs to.

In 2026, people born in 1979 turn 47 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 1979 reach their next běnmìngnián, the year of their own sign, in 2027, when they turn 48 years old.

The Goat comes back every 12 years, each time with a different element. The exact combination of 1979, the Earth Goat, returns every 60 years: in 1919, 1979 and 2039.