2027 Clash Year: Which Zodiac Signs Clash and Choosing a Plate

What is a clash year?

A clash year (ปีชง) is a Chinese belief that compares the zodiac sign of the current year with the zodiac sign of a person's birth year. A year six years apart on the twelve-year cycle is called a direct clash (ชงตรง), which the texts consider the strongest conflict. Besides the clash, there are other relationships Thai people call Heng (เฮ้ง, punishment), Phua (ผั่ว, breaking) and Hai (ไห่, harm), while the supportive ones are called the Six Harmonies (หกประสาน) and the Three Harmonies (สามประสาน).

A clash year is a belief that people use as a reason to make merit and pray at temples for encouragement. It is nothing to fear, and there is no evidence that a clash year affects real life. This article gives a table that can be calculated, and says plainly that different schools count it differently.

Find your zodiac sign from your birth year

The zodiac repeats every 12 years, and 1996 was a Year of the Rat. To work it out, subtract 1996 from your birth year, then take the remainder after dividing by 12. A remainder of 0 is the Rat, 1 is the Ox, then in order the Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster and Dog, until a remainder of 11, which is the Pig. If your birth year is earlier than 1996, keep adding 12 until the result is no longer negative before taking the remainder.

For example, born in 1984: 1984 minus 1996 gives minus 12, plus 12 gives 0, so it is a Year of the Rat. The table below lists the birth years for each sign, so you can find yours straight away.

Year-change dates that confuse people born early in the year

The zodiac year does not change on the same day in every text. Chinese texts change it at Chinese New Year, or at Lichun (ลิชุน) for the Bazi (ปาจื่อ) school, while Thai tradition changes it around Songkran or on the first waxing day of the fifth lunar month (ขึ้น 1 ค่ำ เดือน 5), depending on the school. In 2027, Chinese New Year falls on 6 February, Lichun on 4 February and Maha Songkran on 14 April.

People born between the start of the year and mid-April may therefore have two possible zodiac signs. If clash years matter to you, check with the text you trust and see whether either sign is a clash year. If neither clashes, you need not worry about this.

How each zodiac sign relates to the 2027 Year of the Goat

2027 (B.E. 2570) is the Year of the Goat (ปีมะแม), and its year stem Ding is Yin Fire. The table below compares all 12 signs with the Year of the Goat using the classic set of relationships from Chinese texts.

The result: the Ox directly clashes with the Goat and is also in Heng with it. The Dog is in Phua and Heng, and the Rat is in Hai. The Rabbit and the Pig form the Three Harmonies with the Goat, and the Horse forms the Six Harmonies. People born in a Goat year are in their own birth-sign year. The remaining signs, the Tiger, Dragon, Snake, Monkey and Rooster, have no notable relationship in this set.

Some schools count Dragon or Horse years as years to be extra careful, and many Thai schools also count Khak years (ปีคัก) as clash years, which this table does not include. If you see another website's table that differs from this one, check which relationships it counts, because most differences come from the counting method, not from anyone calculating wrongly.

Clash years and choosing a license plate

We have found no major text that forbids buying or changing a license plate because of a clash year. What the texts broadly advise is to be careful with big decisions. In practice, most people make merit and pray at temples, and there is no need to buy expensive amulets.

Choose a plate in a clash year the same way as in any other year: start by ruling out Kalakini (กาลกิณี) for your birth day, then compare the market median. Do not pay more than the market median out of fear of a clash year. We have found no major text confirming that any plate can neutralise a clash. If someone claims so, ask for the source of the claim first.

If you want encouragement from numbers, Chinese numerology favours numbers that sound like auspicious words, such as 8 and 9. This is a belief separate from clash years. Read more in the article on Chinese lucky numbers and car license plates.