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Chinese Calendar
The Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar, incorporating elements of a lunar calendar with those of a solar calendar. In China today, the Gregorian calendar is used for most day to day activities, but the Chinese calendar is still used for marking traditional Chinese holidays such as Chinese New Year (Spring Festival), Duan Wu festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, and in astrology, such as choosing the most auspicious date for a wedding or the opening of a building. Because each month follows one cycle of the moon, it is also used to determine the phases of the moon.
In China, the traditional calendar is known as the "agricultural calendar" (Simplified Chinese: 农历, pinyin: nónglì) while the Gregorian calendar is known as the "common calendar" (公历, gōnglì) or "Western calendar" . Another name for the Chinese calendar is the "Yin Calendar" (阴历, yīnlì) in reference to the lunar aspect of the calendar, whereas the Gregorian calendar is the "Yang Calendar" (阳历, yánglì) in reference to its solar properties. The Chinese calendar was also called the "old calendar" (旧历, Traditional Chinese: 舊曆, jìulì) after the "new calendar" (新历, 新曆, xīnlì), i.e. the Gregorian calendar, was adopted as the official calendar. The traditional calendar is also often referred to as "the Xia Calendar", following a comment in the Shiji which states that under Xia Dynasty, the year began on the second moon after the winter solstice (just as in the modern calendar).
The current year in the Chinese calendar is 4704, the Year of the Fire Pig (year of Ding Hai, 丁亥). It lasts from 18 February 2007 to 6 February 2008.
The Chinese Lunar New Year is the longest chronological record in history, dating from 2600BC, when the Emperor Huang Ti introduced the first cycle of the zodiac. Like the Western calendar, The Chinese Lunar Calendar is a yearly one, with the start of the lunar year being based on the cycles of the moon. Therefore, because of this cyclical dating, the beginning of the year can fall anywhere between late January and the middle of February. This year it falls on February 12th. A complete cycle takes 60 years and is made up of five cycles of 12 years each.
The Chinese Lunar Calendar names each of the twelve years after an animal. Legend has it that the Lord Buddha summoned all the animals to come to him before he departed from earth. Only twelve came to bid him farewell and as a reward he named a year after each one in the order they arrived. The Chinese believe the animal ruling the year in which a person is born has a profound influence on personality, saying: "This is the animal that hides in your heart."
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