Chinese Lunar Calendar By Abdul Rahim Khurram

 

Chinese Lunar Calendar By Abdul Rahim Khurram

For thousands of years prior to the adoption of the Western solar calendar system, China exclusively used the lunar calendar to determine the dates of planting, harvesting, and festival celebrations. People in China, though they utilize the western calendar for most practical aspects of everyday life today, the old method is still used to determine a large number of seasonal holidays, which are celebrated throughout the year. The Chinese people have long tolerated the existence of two calendar systems coexisting in their country.

The length of a lunar month is defined by the time it takes the moon to complete one full lunar cycle, which is 29 and a half days on average. As a result, the lunar year is 11 days shorter than the solar year. Every 19 years, the difference is made up by the addition of seven lunar months to the calendar year. The 12 lunar months are further subdivided into 24 solar divisions, which are differentiated by the four seasons, as well as times of heat and cold, all of which are closely related to the yearly cycle of agricultural production.

The Chinese calendar - like the Hebrew - is a combined solar/lunar calendar in that it strives to have its years coincide with the tropical year and its months coincide with the synodic months. It is not surprising that a few similarities exist between the Chinese and the Hebrew calendar: An ordinary year has 12 months, a leap year has 13 months. An ordinary year has 353, 354, or 355 days; a leap year has 383, 384, or 385 days. A leap year has 383, 384, or 385 days. When determining the appearance of a Chinese year, one needs do a variety of astronomical calculations, including the following:

First, identify the dates of the new moons in the calendar year. Here, a new moon is the completely black moon (that is, when the moon is in conjunction with the sun), not the first visible crescent used in the Islamic and Hebrew calendars. The first day of a new month is marked by the appearance of a new moon.