The Chinese Calendar

Although China uses the Gregorian calendar for most purposes, it still uses the traditional Chinese calendar, or Chinese Lunar Calendar, to determine many festival dates. Chinese communities in countries other than mainland China also use the Chinese calendar for this purpose. As a result, more than 1.5 billion people use the Chinese lunar calendar. For the majority of these, the Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is the main celebration of the year.

The Chinese calendar is calculated using astronomical measurements to determine the longitude of the sun and phases of the moon. A Chinese Year is approximately equal to a solar year but 12 lunar months do not equal a solar year so every few years a leap month has to be inserted.

An ordinary year has 12 months and 353 - 355 days while a leap year has 13 months and 383 - 385 days.

Because the Chinese calendar is based on both the lunar and solar cycles the Chinese know it as "yin-yang li" or "moon-sun calendar".

Chinese Years

Chinese Years have names that are repeated every 60 years. Each year has a name consisting of two components; the first is called the Celestial Stem and the second component is the Terrestrial Branch:

The components are used sequentially so the first year in the 60year cycle is jia-zi. As there are 10 Celestial Stems and 12 Terrestrial Branches there will be 60 different year names. The tenth year will be gui-you and the eleventh jia-xu because the Celestial Stem cycle has to start again. The thirteenth year restarts the Terrestrial Branch cycle so will be bing-zi and so on until the sixtieth year which is gui-hai and the cycle restarts.

The months are named using an identical system. However, that does not mean that the start of a 60 year cycle coincides with the start of a 60 month cycle.

Foreign Calendars

A number of foreign calendars have been used by the Chinese, though the yin-yang li has been in use throughout. These include the Hindu calendar during the Tang dynasty (618-907) and the Muslim calendar introduced during the Yuan dynasty (1206-368). The Gregorian calendar was brought to China by Jesuit missionaries in 1582 but did not gain prime importance until 1912.

Chinese Calendar for this month:

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• Chinese New Year Dates