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Horse of another color? What 2026's zodiac animal has symbolized through the years.

Published: 01 Jan. 2026, 15:47

Cheon Jin-gi, chair of the Korea Heritage Service’s intangible heritage committee, poses for a photo during an interview with the JoongAng Sunday at the National Folk Museum of Korea in central Seoul on Dec. 24, 2025. [JOONGANG SUNDAY]

With 2026 ushering in the Year of the Horse, Korea’s zodiac traditions are coming back into focus — from long-held symbols of vitality and fortune to lingering superstitions.

To unpack the meaning of the horse in Korean folklore and how its image continues to evolve, the JoongAng Sunday spoke with Cheon Jin-gi, chair of the Korea Heritage Service’s intangible heritage committee and a leading folklorist, on Dec. 24, 2025. Cheon is a former director of the National Folk Museum of Korea.

“People have depicted horses in everything from texts and artifacts to folktales, beliefs and traditional games,” he said. “But the way we think about horses hasn’t changed much. That perception continues to this day. The legend of the horse will keep evolving into the future.
“I expect every TV news anchor will open the new year by saying, 'The Year of the Horse has begun.' The horse symbolizes vitality, stamina and energy. This year will be a lively one. So let’s all charge into the new year like a galloping horse.”

Cheon also shared insights into the horse’s cultural symbolism, the gendered myths surrounding women born in the Year of the Horse, the renewed fascination with traditional imagery like tiger-and-magpie paintings and more.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. The year 2026 is the Year of the Horse. What symbolic meaning does the horse carry?
A. Along with the dragon and tiger, the horse is one of the most widely beloved animals in the zodiac. People have long regarded it as a sacred and auspicious creature, a divine messenger from the heavens, a sign of the arrival of kings and a noble animal ridden by spirits, village guardians, warriors, pioneers and heroes. It also symbolizes strength, vitality and speed throughout Korean history and culture.

Why do horses sometimes appear with wings in traditional Korean imagery?

It carries messages between heaven and earth, and between this world and the afterlife. If you look at tomb murals from the Goguryeo Kingdom (37 B.C.–A.D. 668), you sometimes see a horse with a saddle but no rider. People say the painting represents the tomb’s owner riding the horse, but because it shows a spirit, artists did not depict the person directly. The horse carries the soul of the deceased to the next world. You also see this idea in kokdu, or wooden figures that guide the dead from this world to the afterlife, and most of them ride horses. In reality, horses run faster than any other land animal, so people added the imagination that horses could also fly.

Hasn’t the horse always symbolized strength and energy, both in the past and today?
The horse gives off a powerful impression with its vibrant energy, quick reflexes, strong muscles, glossy mane, tough hooves and heavy breathing. Although horses are no longer part of everyday life in the contemporary age, their image still lingers, and people today continue to admire them. When I give lectures on horses, I sometimes joke, 'Did anyone ride a horse here today?' and people laugh. But words like 'Pony,' 'Galloper' and 'Equus' all come from horses. People have memories of riding buses named Cheonma Tourism, Eunma Tourism or Baekma Tourism — references to symbolic horses commonly used in branding. Even taxi meters once featured galloping horse imagery. As children, we wore rubber shoes or sneakers with horse logos. In everyday life, the horse still vividly lives on.

The year 2026 is described as the Year of the 'Red' Horse. What does that mean?

Stamps and cards illustrated with horses, symbolizing next year's the Year of the Horse, are on display at the Seoul Central Post Office in central Seoul on Nov. 27, 2025. [NEWS1]

The Year of the Horse follows a five-cycle pattern which each corresponds to a certain color, which for this year is red. But adding colors to zodiac animals and assigning meaning to them is not a Korean tradition. That practice began in China, especially with the marketing around 2006 as the Year of the Golden [or Red] Pig. In 2005, the lunar calendar included two start-of-spring days, a rare event that wedding businesses used to promote the idea that couples who married that year would have good fortune. Since many of those couples were expected to have children in 2006, marketers further claimed that babies born in the Year of the Golden Pig would lead successful lives. The idea was entirely a marketing creation.

What kinds of horses carry special meaning in Korean culture?

People saw certain types of horses as lucky symbols in Korean culture, including the sky horse that flies, the white horse, a pair of horses and the dragon horse with the spirit of a dragon. The sky horse was believed to have radiant wings and soar through the heavens, freely traveling between the celestial and human worlds to connect gods and people. The white horse symbolized brightness, the sun and masculine energy, and represented divinity and greatness. In the past, grooms traditionally rode white horses to their weddings. In poet Yi Yuk-sa’s poem 'Wilderness' [1945], the figure riding a white horse symbolized a savior of the times and society. People considered a pair of horses more powerful and auspicious than one alone. Folk beliefs also said that when a baby warrior who was destined to save the world was born, a dragon horse appeared alongside the baby to share their fate.

The horse carries mostly positive symbolism, but people have long attached a negative stereotype to women born in the Year of the Horse, claiming they are overly headstrong. Why is that?

Stamps and cards illustrated with horses, symbolizing next year's the Year of the Horse, are on display at the Seoul Central Post Office in central Seoul on Nov. 27, 2025. [NEWS1]

You won’t find this kind of superstition in Chinese or Korean historical records. In fact, five queens during the Joseon Dynasty [1392-1910] were born in the Year of the Horse. Would the royal family have chosen a queen they believed to be unlucky? This myth came from the tendency to link the energetic, active qualities of the horse only with masculinity. It reflects a mix of Joseon-era customs that discouraged women’s participation in society and lingering influence from Japanese colonial rule [1910-45]. In Japan, people began to avoid women born in the Year of the Horse after a story spread about a woman who, after being rejected by a monk she loved during a past Year of the Horse, set a large fire in Kyoto out of anger.

Why did people start linking zodiac signs to personality traits?

Being born in a certain zodiac year does not determine a person’s personality, and there is no scientific basis for such claims — just as there is none for blood types influencing character. Still, as a folklorist, I wouldn’t say the zodiac is entirely unrelated to personality either. When a child is born, people offer well-meaning remarks like 'You were born in the Year of the Tiger, so you must be brave.' Over time, hearing such comments can shape how people view themselves. They may start identifying with the traits commonly associated with their zodiac animal and internalize them. There’s no scientific explanation, but culturally and psychologically, shared associations and learned behavior can form over time, with influences from the environment.

What do wildlife ecologists say about the real-life relationship between tigers and magpies, and why did related traditional paintings — recently popularized through the hit Netflix film 'KPop Demon Hunters' — always show them under a pine tree?

"Tiger and Magpie" (19th century) [LEEUM MUSEUM OF ART]

Skilled hunters in the past believed that when magpies or crows circled in the sky, a large animal was likely nearby. You can even see this behavior in wildlife documentaries — birds gather when a large predator hunts, hoping to scavenge leftovers. In folklore, the magpie delivers good news, and the tiger serves as a divine messenger, so it makes sense to depict them together. A wildlife ecologist also told me that Siberian tigers living on Mount Paektu often rested under pine trees during heavy snowfall in winter. So tiger and magpie paintings combine a hunter’s real-life observations, the natural behavior of Siberian tigers and traditional symbolism. It’s a story rooted in both ecology and folklore.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY SEO JEONG-MIN [[email protected]]