|
|
|
Celebrations » Chinese New Year » Dates
|
|
Chinese New Year Dates |
|
Chinese New Year is the longest and most spectacular celebration in the Chinese calendar. A Chinese month is divided into 29 to 30 days.
|
|
|
|
The calendar is adjusted to the length of the solar year by the addition of extra months at equal and regular intervals. Chinese people enjoy a week long holiday for this festival to prepare for the celebrations of the New Year.
|
That's the reason Chinese New Year is also termed as Chinese 'lunar' New Year. Although the People of China use the Gregorian calendar for civil purposes, but Chinese Lunar calendar is used for determining festivals. Various Chinese communities across the world also use this calendar.
|
Chinese Lunar New Year
Chinese months are recognized by the lunar calendar and each month begins with the darkest day.
|
The Chinese Lunar calendar is based on astronomical observations of the longitude of the sun and the phases of the moon. The Chinese calendar counts year in a finite sequence. Instead, years have names that are repeated after every 60 years.
Each year is assigned a name consisting of two components: The first one is "celestial stemm" and another one is "terrestrial branch". Both the components are used sequentially. Therefore, the 1st year of the 60-year cycle becomes jia-zi, the 2nd year is yi-chou, and the 3rd year is bing-yin, etc.When we reach the end of a component, and we start from the beginning and in this way the 60 year cycle continues.
Each year is denoted by one of the 12 animals as given in the traditional Chinese lunar calendar and this year 2011 chinese new year is on 3rd february.
|
|
