The 2027 Year of the Goat and your dreams

When does the Year of the Goat start?

By the Chinese lunar calendar, it starts with the Spring Festival on February 6, 2027 and runs until the 2028 Spring Festival. Japan counts the zodiac by the solar calendar, so there it starts on January 1, 2027.

Does your zodiac sign change what a dream means?

Zhou Gong's Book of Dreams is organised by what appears in the dream, for example livestock, or heaven and earth, sun, moon and stars. None of its sections are organised by zodiac sign. Wearing red in your own zodiac year is folk custom; the classics have no special rules for dreams in that year.

If your zodiac year makes you uneasy, that feeling may well show up in your dreams: most dream content continues what concerns us while awake (Domhoff, 2003), and more emotional experiences are more likely to be dreamed about (Malinowski & Horton, 2014).

Sheep and goats in the classical texts

Zhou Gong's Book of Dreams says: leading cattle and sheep home brings joy to the family; a ewe with her lamb adds to one's years and is very auspicious; riding a goat into the street brings wealth; harnessing a goat to a cart means things will be unsettled; pigs or goats scratching themselves mean quarrels.

The Tang-dynasty Dunhuang manuscript of the dream book adds that a flock of sheep means gaining an official post, and riding a goat means finding a good wife.

Dreams around the New Year

Activities that fill our days show up in dreams in proportion (Schredl & Hofmann, 2003), so family reunions, travel and year-end work often appear in dreams around the holiday.

If nightmares pile up around the New Year and disturb your sleep, stress may be part of it: nightmare frequency is linked to daytime distress and stress (Levin & Nielsen, 2007). If it goes on, talk to a doctor or mental health professional.

Related dreams

• Sheep
• Deceased loved ones
• Snakes
• Teeth falling out
• Money
• Exams
• Why do I keep having the same dream?
• How ancient China classified dreams: the six and the ten
• Do dreams come true? What science says about dream interpretation
• Hatsuyume: Japan's first dream of the year

References

• 《周公解梦》
• 敦煌写本《周公解梦书》
• 香港天文台《2027 年公历与农历日期对照表》
• Domhoff, G. W. (2003). The Scientific Study of Dreams: Neural Networks, Cognitive Development, and Content Analysis. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Malinowski, J. E., & Horton, C. L. (2014). Evidence for the preferential incorporation of emotional waking-life experiences into dreams. Dreaming, 24(1), 18–31.
• Schredl, M., & Hofmann, F. (2003). Continuity between waking activities and dream activities. Consciousness and Cognition, 12(2), 298–308.
• Levin, R., & Nielsen, T. A. (2007). Disturbed dreaming, posttraumatic stress disorder, and affect distress: A review and neurocognitive model. Psychological Bulletin, 133(3), 482–528.