The exact dates of the 1978 lunar year
The Earth Horse year ran from February 7, 1978 to January 27, 1979. Twelve lunar months came to 355 days in 1978, eleven or twelve short of the solar year, and that shortfall is what pulls the following new year back towards January.
The 1978 new year fell 11 days earlier in the Gregorian year than the 1977 one, February 7, 1978 against February 18, 1977. Why the 1978 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Earth Horse pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1978 is Wu and the branch is the Horse, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1978 that branch is taken to mean someone restless and independent, poor at being managed and good at moving. Earth, the element attached to 1978, adds steadiness, patience and an attachment to what is already built.
1978 is a yang year, the outward half of the Earth pair: 1979 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1978 is described as the horse temperament working through steadiness.
Born in January or early February 1978
From 1 January 1978 to February 6, 1978 the animal in force was still the Snake, not the Horse — 37 days of 1978 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1978 is a Snake.
The first Horse of 1978 is anyone born on February 7, 1978 or later, and the last one anyone born on January 27, 1979. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, February 7, 1978 is at the later end.
Where 1978 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1978 is position 55 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Wu stem against the Horse branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Earth Horse year was 1918 and the next is 2038.
Someone born in 1918 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1978, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1978 meets the pairing again in 2038.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Horse of 1978 is grouped with the Tiger and the Dog, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1974 and 1982. Its opposition is the Rat, six years on from 1978 in 1984.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1978 was measured to produce them; 1978 stands four years from 1974 and six from 1984, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1978
Because the 1978 lunar year opened on February 7, 1978, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, January 27, 1979, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1978 stays the Horse.
Handbooks equate the Horse of 1978 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 1978 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1978 Earth Horse as a year-long version of Gemini flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1978 Chinese new year start?
February 7, 1978, and the year ran on to January 27, 1979 — 355 days.
What animal is 1978?
The Horse, in its Earth form, from February 7, 1978 onward; a birth earlier in 1978 is a Snake.
Was 1978 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
No. 1978 ran twelve months and 355 days, so no month was doubled.
I was born in January 1978 — which animal am I?
The Snake, unless you were born on February 7, 1978 or later, which is when the 1978 year began.