1979 Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Earth Goat (and Early-January Horse Dates)

By Astrolivo editorial team

In the Chinese calendar, 1979 is primarily the Year of the Earth Goat (Ji-wei), running inclusively from January 28, 1979 through February 15, 1980 (in English references, the wei branch is also commonly translated as Sheep). Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the zodiac year does not turn over on January 1. Anyone born between January 1 and January 27, 1979 falls in the final weeks of the previous lunar year—the Year of the Horse.

1979 Birth-Date Lookup

Use the inclusive date ranges below to match a 1979 birth date to its zodiac sign under the civil Lunar New Year convention:

Why the Gregorian Year 1979 Alone Is Not Enough

The Chinese calendar coordinates lunar months with the solar year, so Lunar New Year moves each year between late January and mid-February. Checking only the Gregorian year 1979 will misidentify birthdays during the first 27 days of January.

As an illustrative hypothetical example: if Person A is born on January 14, 1979, and Person B is born on February 2, 1979, both were born in 1979 on the Western calendar. However, Person A was born before the January 28 Lunar New Year and belongs to the Horse year, while Person B was born after the holiday and belongs to the Earth Goat year.

Why 1979 Is an Earth Goat Year

Each Chinese calendar year receives a paired name from 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches, forming a 60-year sexagenary cycle that starts with Jia-zi. Although the Goat (or Sheep, representing the same wei branch) recurs every 12 years, it does not keep the same element every 12 years; the specific Earth Goat (Ji-wei) year repeats only once every 60 years.

For the lunar year starting January 28, 1979, the Heavenly Stem is Ji, which corresponds to Earth in traditional five-phase (Wu Xing) mapping (Jia/Yi = Wood, Bing/Ding = Fire, Wu/Ji = Earth, Geng/Xin = Metal, Ren/Gui = Water), combined with the branch wei (Goat/Sheep).

How This Differs from Western Sun Signs and Four Pillars (BaZi)

• Western Sun Signs: Western astrology assigns a Sun sign based on roughly month-long solar segments, whereas the Chinese zodiac assigns an animal to the entire lunisolar year.
• Four Pillars (BaZi): This lookup follows the civil Lunar New Year boundary. Traditional Four Pillars (BaZi) charts calculate pillars for the birth year, month, day, and hour and typically switch the year pillar at Li Chun (the solar start of spring) rather than on Lunar New Year Day.

Methodology and Sources

This reference provides calendar conversion facts, not personality claims or predictions. The inclusive dates and Ji-wei header come from the official Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) Gregorian-lunar conversion tables (T1979e.txt and T1980e.txt), anchored to the 60-year stem-branch cycle (Jia-zi 1984). Five-phase stem correspondences follow standard cultural mapping (Yoo & Yoon, 2019, DOI: 10.14369/jkmc.2019.32.2.017), with calendar and Goat/Sheep branch context from the Victoria and Albert Museum and Royal Museums Greenwich. See the full Chinese Zodiac overview to check other years and signs.