On 17 February 2026, the Year of the Snake will turn into the Year of the Horse for Lunar New Year – also known as Chinese New Year or Spring Festival.
The festival itself, which sees people in many parts of Asia take a break from work to travel, lasts 16 days.
As well as cycling through the 12 animals of the calendar, an element is added to each one (earth, wood, metal, fire, water), making it a cycle of 60. The upcoming year is the Year of the Fire Horse.
- Year of the Snake: Discover what this elusive reptile signifies in the lunar calendar
- Pony vs horse: what's the difference?
When does the Year of the Horse begin and end?
This year marks the Year of the Horse. It begins on 17 February 2026 and will end on 5 February 2027, with the moon cycle determining the date each year.
The 16-day festival will culminate in a full blood moon, known as the Worm Moon, on 3 March 2026.
The Year of the Horse will also begin and end with a solar eclipse: in Antarctica in 2026 and in West Africa in 2027.
What do horses symbolise in Asian culture?
Horses were important in ancient and Imperial China, used for cultural, military and agricultural purposes.
The animals were introduced from the West (often including deals with Eurasian nomads), with the Han, Tang, Ming and Qing dynasties relying extensively on hundreds of thousands of horses in its military campaigns.
Horses particularly featured in Chinese art during the Tang dynasty, and winged horses appear in ancient Chinese texts: the tianma (‘heavenly horse’), qianlima (‘thousand-li horse’) and longma (‘dragon horse’).
Those who belong to the horse sign are typically said to be free-spirited, energetic, independent and adventurous.
Horses in ancient Asia
Przewalski's horse is a rare wild horse originally found in the steppes of Central Asia. Once extinct in the wild, it has been reintroduced to its native habitat since the 1990s.
Eurasian nomads from the Eurasian Steppe, which covers an area across Northeast Asia to Central Europe, domesticated the horse around 3500 BCE.
Domestic breeds of Asian horses include the Mongolian horse, the Tibetan pony, the Kazakh horse and the Hequ horse.
- Are these the most beautiful horse breeds in the world?
- With just 300 left in the world, is this the rarest horse on the planet?
- 10 greatest horses of all time, from Red Rum to 'the horse the Germans couldn’t kill'
- Deadliest horse diseases in the world – according to a veterinary surgeon
Top image: wild horses in Hungary. Credit: Getty
