1978 Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Earth Horse (and Early-Year Snake Dates)

By Astrolivo editorial team

In the Chinese calendar, 1978 is primarily the Year of the Earth Horse (Wu-wu), running inclusively from February 7, 1978 through January 27, 1979. Because the traditional Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the zodiac year does not begin on January 1. If you were born between January 1 and February 6, 1978, your birth date falls at the end of the preceding lunar year—the Year of the Snake.

1978 Birth-Date Lookup

Check the inclusive date ranges below to see which Chinese zodiac sign corresponds to a 1978 birth date under the civil Lunar New Year convention:

Why the Gregorian Year 1978 Alone Is Not Enough

Because the Chinese lunisolar calendar aligns lunar months with the solar year, Lunar New Year shifts between late January and mid-February. Relying only on the four-digit Gregorian year misclassifies anyone born in the first five weeks of 1978.

For a concrete hypothetical comparison: suppose Person A is born on January 25, 1978, and Person B is born on February 12, 1978. Although both birth certificates say 1978, Person A was born before the February 7 Lunar New Year and falls under the Snake year, whereas Person B was born after the holiday and belongs to the Earth Horse year.

Why 1978 Is an Earth Horse Year

Traditional Chinese year names combine 10 Heavenly Stems with 12 Earthly Branches (the zodiac animals) to form a 60-year sexagenary cycle beginning with Jia-zi. While the Horse returns every 12 years, the element changes with each cycle—an Earth Horse (Wu-wu) year occurs only once every 60 years.

For the lunar year starting February 7, 1978, the Heavenly Stem is Wu, which maps to Earth in the traditional five-phase (Wu Xing) system (Jia/Yi = Wood, Bing/Ding = Fire, Wu/Ji = Earth, Geng/Xin = Metal, Ren/Gui = Water), paired with the branch wu (Horse).

How This Differs from Western Sun Signs and Four Pillars (BaZi)

• Western Sun Signs: Western astrology tracks the Sun's monthly position along the tropical ecliptic, changing signs roughly every 30 days, whereas the Chinese zodiac assigns one animal to a full lunisolar year.
• Four Pillars (BaZi): This reference uses the civil Lunar New Year boundary. A full Four Pillars (BaZi) chart evaluates birth year, month, day, and hour pillars and typically transitions the year pillar at Li Chun (solar spring) rather than on Lunar New Year Day.

Methodology and Sources

This page is a historical calendar lookup, not a personality profile or fortune-telling forecast. Exact date boundaries and the Wu-wu designation are taken from the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) Gregorian-lunar conversion tables (T1978e.txt and T1979e.txt), anchored to the 60-year stem-branch sequence (Jia-zi 1984). Five-phase stem mappings follow standard cultural correspondence (Yoo & Yoon, 2019, DOI: 10.14369/jkmc.2019.32.2.017), with calendar history referenced from the Victoria and Albert Museum and Royal Museums Greenwich. Browse all 12 signs and other birth years in the Chinese Zodiac overview.