2027 · Year of the Fire Goat

The 12 Chinese zodiac animals and the Fire Goat year

130 days until the Fire Goat year, February 6

Pick an animal to see its character and how it meets 2027, the Year of the Fire Goat (Ding Wei), which comes once every sixty years. Not sure which animal is yours? Read on: it may not be the one you were told.

Why so many people have the wrong animal

Most zodiac charts give you an animal from your birth year alone. But the Chinese zodiac year doesn't begin on January 1. In the Four Pillars system your animal changes at Lichun, the traditional start of spring, around February 4. The popular Lunar New Year date moves every year, anywhere from January 21 to February 20.

So someone born on January 25, 1990 is usually told they're a Horse, because 1990 was a Horse year. But the Horse year hadn't begun yet. They were born a Snake. If your birthday is in January or early February, it's worth checking yours.

And your animal is just the outer layer

Your full chart has four pillars, one each for the year, month, day and hour you were born. Each pillar has two characters: an element and an animal. The year gives your animal; the day gives your Day Master, the element at the center of the chart and, in the Four Pillars tradition, the clearest picture of who you are.

2027 is a Fire Goat year, and that happens once every sixty years. The last was 1967; the next is 2087.