What Chinese Zodiac Is 1942? Year of the Water Horse

When the 1942 Water Horse year starts and ends

The 1942 Water Horse year began at Lunar New Year on February 15, 1942 and lasted until February 4, 1943, the day before the next new year. Anyone born between January 1 and Feb 15 1942 therefore belongs to the Metal Snake year that started in 1941, while someone born in early 1943, up to Feb 4, is still a Water Horse. 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 Water Horse combination also falls in 2002, sixty years apart, because five elements and twelve animals realign only once in each sixty-year cycle. Lunar New Year 1942 fell on a Sunday, while the Western Sun was in Aquarius.

Water Horse personality

Water Horse years are associated with charming, witty and adaptable people. Water cools the Horse's Fire, so traditional readings describe enthusiasm tempered by reflection and social skill. Those born then are often good communicators who love travel and variety. The usual caution is changeability, and readings suggest committing to a plan for a set period before reviewing it. Few people make a long journey more entertaining.

Water is the element of winter, stillness and depth, and a Water year is traditionally said to give any animal intuition, flexibility and a gift for communication. Descriptions associate it with wisdom, empathy and the ability to find a way around obstacles rather than through them. Water-year people are often portrayed as perceptive listeners, diplomatic and quietly persuasive, able to sense the mood of a room before anyone speaks. The element is linked with reflection and with the unseen, so it adds an inward, thoughtful layer. Its shadow, in most readings, is drift: indecision, secrecy, and a tendency to take on the shape of whoever is nearby.

1942 in numerology and the twelve-year cycle

In numerology the year reduces to 7, the number of reflection, analysis and inner work, giving a 7 year a quieter, more searching character. The digits of 1942 add up to 16, which reduces to 7. In the twelve-year cycle the Horse is the seventh animal, earthly branch Wu, with Fire as its fixed element and Yang polarity. The year element is Water, and in the five-element cycles water controls Fire. The year before was the Metal Snake and the year after is the Water Goat.

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