The exact dates of the 1942 lunar year
The Water Horse year ran from February 15, 1942 to February 4, 1943. Twelve lunar months came to 355 days in 1942, eleven or twelve short of the solar year, and that shortfall is what pulls the following new year back towards January.
The 1942 new year fell 19 days later in the Gregorian year than the 1941 one, February 15, 1942 against January 27, 1941. Why the 1942 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Water Horse pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1942 is Ren and the branch is the Horse, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1942 that branch is taken to mean someone restless and independent, poor at being managed and good at moving. Water, the element attached to 1942, adds adaptability, depth and a way of getting around obstacles rather than through.
1942 is a yang year, the outward half of the Water pair: 1943 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1942 is described as the horse temperament working through adaptability.
Born in January or early February 1942
From 1 January 1942 to February 14, 1942 the animal in force was still the Snake, not the Horse — 45 days of 1942 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1942 is a Snake.
The first Horse of 1942 is anyone born on February 15, 1942 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 4, 1943. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, February 15, 1942 is at the later end.
Where 1942 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1942 is position 19 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Ren stem against the Horse branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Water Horse year was 1882 and the next is 2002.
Someone born in 1882 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1942, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1942 meets the pairing again in 2002.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Horse of 1942 is grouped with the Tiger and the Dog, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1938 and 1946. Its opposition is the Rat, six years on from 1942 in 1948.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1942 was measured to produce them; 1942 stands four years from 1938 and six from 1948, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1942
Because the 1942 lunar year opened on February 15, 1942, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 4, 1943, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1942 stays the Horse.
Handbooks equate the Horse of 1942 with Gemini, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1942 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1942 Water Horse as a year-long version of Gemini flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1942 Chinese new year start?
February 15, 1942, and the year ran on to February 4, 1943 — 355 days.
What animal is 1942?
The Horse, in its Water form, from February 15, 1942 onward; a birth earlier in 1942 is a Snake.
Was 1942 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
No. 1942 ran twelve months and 355 days, so no month was doubled.
I was born in January 1942 — which animal am I?
The Snake, unless you were born on February 15, 1942 or later, which is when the 1942 year began.