Chinese New Year 2027 falls on Saturday, February 6, 2027, and begins the Year of the Fire Goat, which lasts until January 25, 2028. In the calendar's stem-and-branch system it's a ding wei year: yin Fire paired with the Goat, the eighth of the twelve zodiac animals.
What the year "means" depends on which tradition you ask. Below are the dates, the folk beliefs about which animals have a tricky year, and the customs that go with the holiday, described as traditions rather than forecasts.
Key dates for the Year of the Goat
- Thursday, February 4, 2027: Lichun. The Start of Spring, one of the 24 solar terms. BaZi practitioners and many feng shui consultants begin the new year here rather than at New Year's Day.
- Friday, February 5: New Year's Eve. The night of the reunion dinner, when families gather for the biggest meal of the year.
- Saturday, February 6: Chinese New Year. The first day of the first lunar month and the start of the Goat year in everyday reckoning.
- Saturday, February 20: the Lantern Festival. The fifteenth day of the first month, under the first full moon of the year, which closes the New Year season.
- Tuesday, January 25, 2028: the last day of the Goat year. The Earth Monkey arrives on Wednesday, January 26, 2028.
Those dates come from the Hong Kong Observatory's calendar tables, which follow the official Chinese calendar. Korea and Vietnam compute the same lunisolar calendar for their own time zones, so in some years their New Year falls a day apart; the lunar calendar explainer covers how these calendars keep pace with the Sun.
Goat, Sheep or Ram?
All three appear on cards and in shop windows, and none is wrong. The Chinese character 羊 (yáng) covers goats and sheep alike, so translators pick whichever sounds right to them. Japan and Korea usually picture a sheep, while many Chinese illustrations show a goat. This site uses Goat throughout.
Goat years in the past century were 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003 and 2015. The last Fire Goat year began on February 9, 1967, and the one before that on February 13, 1907. If your birthday falls in January or early February, check the New Year date for your birth year in our guide to what your Chinese zodiac sign is.
What a Fire Goat year is said to bring
The Goat has a gentle reputation in zodiac lore. It's associated with kindness, creativity, home comforts and a dislike of conflict, the friend who brings soup when you're ill and notices that you've rearranged the furniture.
The element adds its own color. Ding is yin Fire, traditionally pictured as the flame of a candle or a lamp rather than the blaze of the sun, which belongs to bing, the yang Fire of 2026. The Goat's own branch, wei, is an Earth branch tied to the warm end of summer. Fire feeds Earth in the generating cycle, so readers describe a ding wei year in domestic, steady terms: tending, mending and making things, after the louder Fire Horse year. The Chinese zodiac elements guide explains that cycle. Treat these as themes for reflection. They don't predict anything about anyone's year.
Tai Sui in 2027: which animals are said to clash
In Chinese folk religion each year is governed by a Tai Sui, a deity of the year, and certain animals are said to be "offending Tai Sui", which calls for a little extra care. For 2027, Hong Kong and Taiwan almanac writers commonly list four:
- Goat: it's the Goat's own year, its ben ming nian, traditionally the most unsettled.
- Ox: the animal directly opposite the Goat on the wheel, in direct clash with the year.
- Dog: in a "punishment" and "break" relationship with the Goat.
- Rat: in a "harm" relationship with the Goat.
Lists differ between schools, and some include only the first two. The usual responses are gentle ones: wearing red, carrying a protective charm, or visiting a temple to pay respects to Tai Sui, ideally between Lichun and the fifteenth day of the first month. Our guide to ben ming nian describes those customs, and Chinese zodiac compatibility explains the clashes and harms.
The less cheerful Goat traditions
Two old ideas still surface around Goat years, and both are worth knowing about mainly so you can put them down again.
The first is a saying, usually rendered "of ten sheep, nine are incomplete", which suggests that people born in Goat years have hard lives. Nobody knows where it came from; it's often dated, without much evidence, to the late Qing dynasty. In early 2016, a Chinese family planning official partly blamed the saying for a dip in births in the Goat year 2015, and state media criticized the commission for leaning on superstition. There's no evidence that Goat-year children fare any worse than anyone else.
The second is the "red goat calamity", a historical omen about the pairing of Bing Wu and Ding Wei years, Fire Horse and Fire Goat. A Southern Song scholar, Chai Wang, compiled a list of upheavals that fell in such years, from the Warring States period onward, and presented it to the emperor as a warning. Critics have long pointed out that most centuries contain enough trouble to fill any list you care to make, and the idea survives today mostly as a curiosity. Our piece on the Fire Horse year meaning covers the 2026 side of the story.
How people mark Chinese New Year
Customs vary by region and family, but some are widespread:
- Clean before, not after. Homes are swept in the days before New Year, and many families avoid sweeping on the first day so the good luck isn't swept out the door.
- Decorate in red. Paper couplets go up beside the door, often with the character 福 (fu, good fortune), sometimes hung upside down because "upside down" sounds like "arrived".
- Eat together. The New Year's Eve reunion dinner often includes fish, because yu sounds like the word for surplus, and dumplings in the north.
- Give red envelopes. Elders and married couples give money in red envelopes to children and younger relatives; many families avoid amounts with the number four. See Chinese lucky numbers for why.
- Visit, and keep going. The first days are for visiting relatives and friends, with lion dances and fireworks where they're allowed, and the season ends with lanterns on the fifteenth night.
Questions readers ask
What day is Chinese New Year 2027?
Saturday, February 6, 2027. New Year's Eve, with its reunion dinner, is Friday, February 5, and the Lantern Festival is Saturday, February 20.
What element is the Year of the Goat 2027?
Fire, in its yin form. 2027 is a ding wei year, a Fire Goat. The previous Fire Goat year was 1967 and the next will be 2087.
Is 2027 a lucky year for people born in Goat years?
By folk tradition it's their ben ming nian, the year of their own animal, which is considered unsettled rather than unlucky in any fixed way. People mark it with red clothing or a temple visit. Nothing about the calendar decides how your year will actually go.
What comes after the Year of the Goat?
The Monkey. The Earth Monkey year begins on January 26, 2028.
