Born in the Hour of the Horse: Zodiac Time

Most people know their animal. Almost nobody knows the animal of the hour they were born into — and it has been sitting in the same system the whole time. Before the Chinese day was measured by a clock, it was cut into twelve windows of two hours each, and every window carried one of the animals you already know.

Twelve windows, one wheel

Twelve two-hour periods, twelve animals, in the same order as the years — the Rat holds the deep night's end, the Horse the blaze of noon. The day runs Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig, from eleven at night around to eleven the next night. The years turn that wheel once every twelve years; the hours turn it once every twelve hours, twice a day, whether or not anyone is watching.

Why animals mark the hours at all

The machinery underneath is the twelve earthly branches — an abstract twelve-part cycle the old calendar used for years, months, days and hours alike. The branches were paired with animals, most likely so that ordinary people could hold them in mind: a branch is hard to remember, a Rat is not. So the hours are not a separate system bolted on later. They are the same wheel you already know, spun over a single day instead of twelve years.

The hour of the Rat, the hour of the Horse

If you were born between eleven at night and one in the morning, you were born in the [Rat](/chinese-zodiac/rat)'s hour — the quiet stretch the tradition gives to the animal that stores, plans and waits. Noon to one in the afternoon belongs to the [Horse](/chinese-zodiac/horse): the open, forward part of the day. That is where the phrase "born in the hour of the Horse" comes from, and it is why two people with the same animal can still describe themselves so differently.

Finding your own hour

Your Sun sign marks the season you arrived in; the branch-hour marks the part of the day. The Horse's hour is the noon of the day, and [Leo](/zodiac/leo)'s season is the noon of the year — the same idea, measured on two different clocks. Together they are the oldest form of the question "when are you from?" If you take one thing from this, let it be the sentence to try on: not only which animal, but which hour. Your animal by birth year is on the [year table](/blog/what-animal-am-i-chinese-zodiac-by-year); the hours are waiting in the same system.