What Chinese Zodiac Is 1955? Year of the Wood Goat

When the 1955 Wood Goat year starts and ends

The 1955 Wood Goat year began at Lunar New Year on January 24, 1955 and lasted until February 11, 1956, the day before the next new year. Anyone born between January 1 and Jan 24 1955 therefore belongs to the Wood Horse year that started in 1954, while someone born in early 1956, up to Feb 11, is still a Wood Goat. The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, which is why the start date moves between January 21 and February 20 instead of staying on January 1. The same Wood Goat combination also falls in 2015, sixty years apart, because five elements and twelve animals realign only once in each sixty-year cycle. Lunar New Year 1955 fell on a Monday, while the Western Sun was in Aquarius.

Wood Goat personality

Kind, community-minded and artistic, the Wood Goat gives generously to causes and friends alike. Wood stirs the Goat's Earth, which tradition reads as encouragement towards growth and outward connection. Those born in this year often help others instinctively. The cost can be anxiety and overextension, so deciding in advance how much to give is a common suggestion. Gardens, choirs and craft circles often suit them.

Wood is the element of spring and of things that grow, so a Wood year is traditionally said to lend any animal a generous, expansive streak. Classical descriptions link it with kindness, idealism and a talent for cooperation: Wood people are often pictured as the ones who start community projects, mentor younger colleagues and believe that most situations can improve with patience and goodwill. The element also carries a strong sense of fairness and a dislike of waste. Its shadow side, according to most readings, is overextension. Like a plant reaching in every direction, a Wood-year person may take on too much, trust too readily or struggle to say no when a cause seems worthwhile.

1955 in numerology and the twelve-year cycle

In numerology the year's digits reduce to 2, the number of partnership, patience and diplomacy, and a 2 year is traditionally read as one for cooperation rather than solo pushes. The digits of 1955 add up to 20, which reduces to 2. In the twelve-year cycle the Goat is the eighth animal, earthly branch Wei, with Earth as its fixed element and Yin polarity. The year element is Wood, and in the five-element cycles wood controls Earth. The year before was the Wood Horse and the year after is the Fire Monkey.

In the traditional sexagenary count the year is called Yi-Wei: Yi is the Wood heavenly stem and Wei is the Goat's earthly branch. Stems and branches alternate between yang and yin together, which is why yin stems only ever meet yin animals.