The 12 animals

Year of the Horse: 2026 and every Horse year

The Horse year of 2026 runs into early 2027. Here is when it began and ends, which Horse it is, and the dates of every Horse year with their elements.

Were you born in a year of the Horse?

Any date from 1901 to 2100.

Year starts at

"New year" is the lunar new year, the usual rule. "Feb 4 term" is Spring Commences, the rule of Four Pillars charts. Everything you enter stays in this browser: nothing is sent or stored.

Born July 1, 2026

Fire Horse

Stem-branchBing-Wu 丙午, yang
Lunar birth dateday 17 of the 5th month, 2026
That lunar year: February 17, 2026 to February 5, 2027
All about the year of the Horse

The lunar year of 2026 is a year of the Horse. It began on February 17, 2026 and ends on February 5, 2027, when the Goat takes over, according to the Gregorian-Lunar conversion tables of the Hong Kong Observatory. It is a Fire Horse year, Bing-Wu, in which a Fire stem meets the Horse's own Fire branch, a combination that returns only once every sixty years. The Horse is the seventh animal of the cycle and the sign of Wu, the branch of noon and of the summer solstice month. Before 2026, Horse years began on January 31, 2014 and February 12, 2002. Folk portraits make Horse people energetic, independent and impatient; that is tradition, and the separate page on the Fire Horse explains the old superstition about girls born in such a year and what it did to births in Japan in 1966.

How does tradition pair these two signs?

Horse and Tiger

Triad (san he)

Horse triadTiger, Dog
Horse oppositeRat

Folk tradition, not a prediction.

Compare two exact birth dates →

Dates read in the HKO tables by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources

The Horse year of 2026 on the calendar

The Horse year covers almost all of 2026 and the first five weeks of 2027: its new year fell on a Tuesday, and its last day is Friday, February 5, 2027. A child born in January 2027 is therefore still a Horse. Spring Commences, the date Four Pillars charts use instead, fell on February 4, 2026 and falls again on February 4, 2027.

The US Postal Service issued its Lunar New Year: Year of the Horse stamp on February 3, 2026, at the Chinese Community Center in Houston. In its announcement, the Postal Service calls it the seventh stamp of its third Lunar New Year series, which began in 2020 and runs to 2031.

When is the lunar new year?

Lunar new year 2027

Feb 6, 2027

Day of the weekSaturday
Counted from Nov 5, 202693 days later
Year of theFire Goat
New year eveFeb 5, 2027
See every date from 1901 to 2100 →

Wu: noon and midsummer

The Wu branch names the double hour from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the fifth lunar month, which contains the summer solstice. It is the Fire branch at the southern point of the circle, directly opposite the Rat's midnight and midwinter. That position explains the clash tradition sees between Horse and Rat.

The Horse in folk tradition

Tradition joins the Horse with the Tiger and the Dog, pairs it in harmony with the Goat, and names the Ox as its harm pair. Popular portraits stress freedom, speed and warmth. They are not forecasts, and the compatibility page explains how the pairings are built.

The Horse at a glance

Branch, hour and month: Hong Kong Observatory. Pairings: folk tradition.
Earthly branchWu 午, number 7 of 12
Fixed element of the branchFire, yang
Double hour (shichen)11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Lunar month named by the branch5th month
Triad (san he)Tiger, Dog
Harmony pair (liu he)Goat
Opposite sign (liu chong)Rat
Harm pair (liu hai)Ox
Next year of the Horse2038, from February 4, 2038

Every year of the Horse, with exact dates

Each line is one lunar year, from its new year to the eve of the next. Over sixty years the Horse comes back five times, once with each element: Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth. A birth before the start date in that Gregorian year belongs to the Snake.

Lunar new year dates from the Hong Kong Observatory conversion tables, read on November 1, 2026.
YearSignStem-branchStartsEnds
1930Metal HorseGeng-Wu 庚午Jan 30, 1930Feb 16, 1931
1942Water HorseRen-Wu 壬午Feb 15, 1942Feb 4, 1943
1954Wood HorseJia-Wu 甲午Feb 3, 1954Jan 23, 1955
1966Fire HorseBing-Wu 丙午Jan 21, 1966Feb 8, 1967
1978Earth HorseWu-Wu 戊午Feb 7, 1978Jan 27, 1979
1990Metal HorseGeng-Wu 庚午Jan 27, 1990Feb 14, 1991
2002Water HorseRen-Wu 壬午Feb 12, 2002Jan 31, 2003
2014Wood HorseJia-Wu 甲午Jan 31, 2014Feb 18, 2015
2026Fire HorseBing-Wu 丙午Feb 17, 2026Feb 5, 2027
2038Earth HorseWu-Wu 戊午Feb 4, 2038Jan 23, 2039

Questions people ask

When is the next year of the Horse?

The next year of the Horse is the Earth Horse, which begins on February 4, 2038 and ends on January 23, 2039, according to the Hong Kong Observatory conversion tables. After it, the Horse returns in 2050 as a Metal Horse; the same element and animal meet again only in 2098.

When does the year of the Horse end?

On February 5, 2027, the eve of the lunar new year. The Fire Goat year begins the next day, February 6, 2027, according to the Hong Kong Observatory conversion tables. In Four Pillars charts, which use Spring Commences instead, the Horse year ends on February 3, 2027.

What were the last years of the Horse?

Before 2026, the Wood Horse of January 31, 2014 to February 18, 2015, the Water Horse that began on February 12, 2002, the Metal Horse of 1990 and the Earth Horse of 1978. The previous Fire Horse, the same combination as 2026, began on January 21, 1966. The table on this page lists every one with its dates.

Is a baby born in January 2027 a Horse?

Yes. The Horse year lasts until February 5, 2027, so any birth from January 1 to that date is a Fire Horse under the usual lunar new year rule. Under the Spring Commences rule used in Four Pillars charts, the Horse ends earlier, on February 3, 2027, and February 4 and 5 births are Goats.

Which signs does tradition pair with the Horse?

Folk tradition places the Horse in a triad with the Tiger and the Dog, counted as the warmest match, and pairs it in harmony with the Goat. Its opposite, six years away, is the Rat, and its harm pair is the Ox. These pairings come from the positions of the branches on a circle and predict nothing about real couples.

Check next

Sign finder

Your animal, element and lunar birth date from your exact birth date, with the January and February boundary handled.

What sign am I?

Exact birth date in, sign out, with both start-of-year rules compared for January and February birthdays.

Compatibility

Two birth dates in: each sign and element, then how folk tradition pairs them, with where the rules come from.

Elements and the 60-year cycle

Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water: how each year gets its element, the 60 stem-branch names, and the benming year.

Year of the Tiger

Third animal: Tiger years with their exact start dates, the Water Tiger of 2022 and the Wood Tiger of 2034.

Year of the Dog

Eleventh animal: Dog years with exact start dates, the Earth Dog of 2018 and the Metal Dog of 2030.

Tables and official pages behind this page

Written by

Independent publisher of a Chinese zodiac sign finder by exact birth date, built on the Gregorian-lunar conversion tables of the Hong Kong Observatory

Calendar tables checked on · Editorial policy · Contact

Chinese zodiac and lunar calendar 2026, dates read in the Hong Kong Observatory conversion tables, last checked on