17/02/2026
The Year of the Fire Horse wishing you all a Hapoy Chinese New Year from Rambi Virk at Yinpalm Dao Arts UK.
On Tuesday, February 17, 2026, on the night of the new moon, we enter one of the most chaotic years in the Chinese zodiac – the Year of the Fire Horse. The Chinese lunisolar calendar is based on a sexagenary (sixty year) cycle so every year only happens once every sixty years. As in western astrology, there are twelve Chinese zodiac signs. However, western astrology only has four elements: fire, earth, air, and water. Each element is fixed to a specific sign; for example, Pisces, the fishes, is always classified as a water sign. There are five elements in Chinese cosmology: wood, fire, metal, earth, and water. These rotate every two years; last year was the wood snake and the year before that was the wood dragon. Consequently, the two years prior to those were the water rabbit and the the water tiger. Multiply twelve zodiac signs with five elements and the product is sixty. In Mandarin, this cycle of sixty is called gānzhī (stems and branches 干支).
The Fire Horse
The Year of the Fire Horse is known as bǐng wǔ (丙午); it is the 43rd combination of gānzhī. The confluence of fire and horse makes this year highly combustible. The horse is normally governed by fire so in a fire year, it’s double fire. Subsequently, the year of the Fire Horse is a time of immense power, forward drive and committed intensity. It can also be one of the most chaotic years of the cycle. The mighty steadfast horse fueled by fire charges in at full gallop. It stampedes like wildfire.
The last Year of the Fire Horse was 1966. That was the year that the Cultural Revolution began to ravage mainland China. For the next decade, that movement violently purged China of capitalism and time-honored traditions.