What Chinese Zodiac Is 2002? Year of the Water Horse

2002 Lunar New Year: start and end dates

Lunar New Year opened the Water Horse year on February 12, 2002, and the year ran to January 31, 2003. So a birth date of Feb 12, 2002 or later counts as Water Horse, and so do early 2003 birthdays through Jan 31; births in 2002 before Feb 12 still belong to the Metal Snake. That moving boundary comes from the lunisolar calendar, in which the new year starts with the second new moon after the winter solstice in most years, so its Gregorian date shifts by up to a month from one year to the next. Look sixty years either side and the pairing repeats: 1942 are Water Horse years too. That Tuesday new year arrived with the Sun in Aquarius in the Western zodiac.

What the Water Horse is like

In a Water Horse year, the Horse's free spirit gains diplomacy and quick perception. Classical readings picture those born now as easy company, flexible thinkers and persuasive talkers. Water controlling Fire can make moods and plans shift. Regular reflection on what they truly want, and emotional honesty rather than charming deflection, are the usual suggestions for this lively combination. Friends often prize their sense of humour above all.

In classical thought, Water belongs to the north and to the deep, resting energy of winter, the season when life gathers strength out of sight. As a year stem, it tends to make an animal more reflective, adaptable and emotionally attuned. People born under a Water stem are often described as clever negotiators, sensitive friends and natural mediators who prefer influence to force. They value understanding and tend to think before they act. The caution traditionally attached to Water is fluidity taken too far: avoiding conflict, keeping too much hidden and losing a clear sense of their own direction.

2002 in the animal cycle and in numerology

In numerology the digits reduce to 4, the number of structure, effort and foundations, which gives a 4 year a reputation for steady, practical work. The digits of 2002 add up to 4. The Horse holds the seventh place among the twelve animals and its fixed element is Fire. Set beside the year's Water stem, water controls Fire, which readings use to describe how settled or stretched the combination feels. The year before was the Metal Snake and the year after is the Water Goat.

Chinese almanacs name 2002 Ren-Wu, pairing the Water stem Ren with the branch Wu. Both are Yang, as stem and branch always share a polarity, so of the hundred and twenty possible pairings only sixty ever occur, and each one names a single year in every cycle.