Began January 28, 1979 · 384 days long
1979: year of the Earth Goat
The Goat year started on January 28, not on January 1 — so anyone born in 1979 before that date is a Horse.
- Opening new moon
- Jan 28, 1979 6:20 AM UTC
- In Beijing
- 2:20 PM Sun, Jan 28 · sets the date
- Year of the Goat
- 384 days 13 lunar months, one of them leap
- It ends
- Feb 16, 1980 8:51 AM UTC
New moons: NASA JPL DE440. New-year dates: Hong Kong Observatory.
Exact times
Chinese New Year 1979: the new moon in your city
The Earth Goat year opened with the new moon at 6:20 AM UTC on January 28, 1979 — 2:20 PM on January 28 in Beijing, the time the calendar reckons by, and 1:20 AM on January 28 in New York, 6:20 AM on January 28 in London and 5:20 PM on January 28 in Sydney.
| City | New moon that opens the year |
|---|---|
| UTC | Sun, Jan 28, 1979 |
| Honolulu United States | 8:20 PM Sat, Jan 27, 1979 · UTC−10 |
| Anchorage United States | 8:20 PM Sat, Jan 27, 1979 · UTC−10 |
| Los Angeles United States | 10:20 PM Sat, Jan 27, 1979 · UTC−8 |
| Phoenix United States | 11:20 PM Sat, Jan 27, 1979 · UTC−7 |
| Denver United States | 11:20 PM Sat, Jan 27, 1979 · UTC−7 |
| Chicago United States | 12:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC−6 |
| Mexico City Mexico | 12:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC−6 |
| New York United States | 1:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC−5 |
| Toronto Canada | 1:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC−5 |
| Bogotá Colombia | 1:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC−5 |
| Lima Peru | 1:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC−5 |
| Caracas Venezuela | 2:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC−4 |
| Santiago Chile | 3:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC−3 |
| Buenos Aires Argentina | 3:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC−3 |
| São Paulo Brazil | 3:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC−3 |
| Reykjavík Iceland | 6:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC |
| London United Kingdom | 6:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC |
| Lagos Nigeria | 7:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+1 |
| Paris France | 7:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+1 |
| Berlin Germany | 7:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+1 |
| Johannesburg South Africa | 8:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+2 |
| Cairo Egypt | 8:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+2 |
| Athens Greece | 8:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+2 |
| Istanbul Turkey | 9:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+3 |
| Moscow Russia | 9:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+3 |
| Nairobi Kenya | 9:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+3 |
| Tehran Iran | 9:50 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+3:30 |
| Dubai United Arab Emirates | 10:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+4 |
| Karachi Pakistan | 11:20 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+5 |
| New Delhi India | 11:50 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+5:30 |
| Kathmandu Nepal | 11:50 AM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+5:30 |
| Dhaka Bangladesh | 12:20 PM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+6 |
| Bangkok Thailand | 1:20 PM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+7 |
| Jakarta Indonesia | 1:20 PM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+7 |
| Singapore | 1:50 PM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+7:30 |
| Beijing China | 2:20 PM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+8 |
| Manila Philippines | 2:20 PM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+8 |
| Perth Australia | 2:20 PM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+8 |
| Seoul South Korea | 3:20 PM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+9 |
| Tokyo Japan | 3:20 PM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+9 |
| Adelaide Australia | 4:50 PM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+10:30 |
| Brisbane Australia | 4:20 PM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+10 |
| Sydney Australia | 5:20 PM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+11 |
| Auckland New Zealand | 7:20 PM Sun, Jan 28, 1979 · UTC+13 |
New moon: JPL DE440 (Swiss Ephemeris within 8 s); 1979 date as in the Hong Kong Observatory calendar. Local times: IANA time zones, to the minute.
18 pages · printable
The 2027 Sky Calendar — free PDF
Every retrograde, eclipse, new and full moon of 2027 to the minute, already converted to your city. A month to a page, ready to print.
Personality
The Earth Goat personality
Anyone born from January 28, 1979 through February 15, 1980 is an Earth Goat: the yin earth stem 己 over the 未 branch.
Earth is already the Goat's own element, so here it is doubled and everything typical of the sign runs at full strength. Of the five Goats this is the most creative, and the least inclined to compromise.
Stem and branch
1979 is 己未 (Jǐwèi)
Na yin — the sounding element
Fire in the Sky 天上火
The sun itself. The strongest fire image: warmth and light given to everything, prominence, and a presence that is noticed whether it wants to be or not.
1979 therefore carries earth from its stem and fire from its na yin. What na yin is →
Li Chun inside the year
A double spring year
The two Li Chun dates around it are February 4, 1979 and February 5, 1980, Beijing time. The Goat year spans January 28, 1979 to February 15, 1980, so both dates sit inside it: a double spring year (双春). What double spring and blind years mean →
Who clashes with a 1979 Goat
The 未 branch puts a 1979 Goat opposite the Ox on the wheel, the traditional clash; the nearest Ox year after it was 1985. Its harmony partner is the Horse, whose year came round 11 years later, in 1990. How the Goat and Ox get on →
Goats born in 1979 turn 47 in 2026 — 48 by the traditional count, which starts at one.
If you were born in 1979
- Born January 1 – January 27, 1979: an Earth Horse, the animal of 1978.
- Born January 28, 1979 or later in the year: an Earth Goat.
A year-only calculator mislabels 27 days of 1979, everything from January 1 to January 27. Those dates hold 7.1% of US births (SSA, 2000–2014). Check your exact date →
The Goat across the cycle
The animal returns every 12 years but the element every 60, so each of these years is a different Goat.
The lunar calendar of 1979
Why 384 days, and not 365
1979 repeated its sixth month: the leap month 闰六月 ran from July 24 to August 22 and stretched the year to 384 days. Seven of the 13 months had 30 days.
The 30-day months were the 1st, 4th, 6th, leap 6th, 8th, 9th and 11th.
Festival dates in the 1979 lunar year
| Festival | Lunar date | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Lantern Festival 元宵节 | first month, day 15 | Sun, Feb 11, 1979 |
| Dragon Boat Festival 端午节 | fifth month, day 5 | Wed, May 30, 1979 |
| Qixi, the Double Seventh 七夕 | seventh month, day 7 | Wed, Aug 29, 1979 |
| Ghost Festival 中元节 | seventh month, day 15 | Thu, Sep 6, 1979 |
| Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节 | eighth month, day 15 | Fri, Oct 5, 1979 |
| Double Ninth Festival 重阳节 | ninth month, day 9 | Mon, Oct 29, 1979 |
| Winter solstice 冬至 | solar term, Sun at 270° | Sat, Dec 22, 1979 |
| Laba Festival 腊八节 | twelfth month, day 8 | Fri, Jan 25, 1980 |
The year's first full moon arrived at 10:39 AM on February 12, the day after the Lantern Festival. The festival night of October 5 fell a day before the true full moon, which came at 3:35 AM Beijing time on October 6 — lunar day 16.
Dates follow Beijing time (UTC+8), the reference clock of the Chinese calendar. Why lunar years differ in length →
Lunar years around 1979
Lengths differ because a leap month is inserted every two or three years. This is what makes the new year date jump rather than drift.
Only 24 of the 110 new years in the table fall earlier in the calendar than January 28. Three other years share the date. Twelve years earlier, 1967 began on February 9; twelve years later, 1991 began on February 15 — both marked in lavender with the other Goat years.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “Chinese Horoscope 1979: Zodiac Year of the Earth Goat.” Accessed October 28, 2026. https://astrohot.com/chinese-horoscope/year/1979/
For Wikipedia
{{cite web |title=Chinese Horoscope 1979: Zodiac Year of the Earth Goat |url=https://astrohot.com/chinese-horoscope/year/1979/ |website=AstroHot |access-date=2026-10-28}}