Discovering China - CHINESE NEW YEAR!
Why doesn t fall of Chinese New Year on the day of the new year.
In 2014, Chinese New Year falls on January 31, a month after the Western calendar celebrated the New Year's Day on January 1
Not only do the New Year celebrations not match this year, they never will be Chinese custom is that the winter solstice falls on 11 months so that the Lunar New Year begins on the second new moon after falling between 21 January and 20 February.
But the timing shift is deeper than it is all about astronomy.
The Chinese calendar, as the Hebrew calendar and Muslims, is a lunar calendar lunar calendar, as its name suggests, is based on the orbits of the Moon around the Earth In fact, it takes the moon 27 32 days around the Earth, but lunar months, measured from the new moon to new moon, last May 29 days, the additional two days creep in because the Earth isn t yet held in space, but continues to move around the sun and the phase of the moon depends on the relative positions of the Earth, moon and sun.
The calendar on the wall, usually called a Gregorian or Western, is a solar calendar based on the 365 24 days, it takes the Earth to orbit the sun fraction of a day beyond 365 days is the reason for leap years.
Even with leap days have shown, there's no way to fit lunar months May 29 days uniformly in solar years 365 days, so that the lunar and solar calendars have never fit together well you can shave that half additional day per month alternating 29 and 30 days, but after 12 months of moon, you will still have 10 or 11 days remaining on each solar year.
A true lunar calendar, as the Muslim Hijri calendar, slide back the 10 to 11 days every solar year, so a lunar calendar will at the same position in a solar year every 33 years that the reason Ramadan, when observant Muslims fast between dawn and dusk, spans the longest day of the year in 2015 and 2016, while in 1999 and 2000, Ramadan fell during the shortest days the year, it will again in 2032 and 2033.
To avoid the time slip 10 days, most calendar systems shoehorn in an extra month every two or three years these lunisolar calendars, including Hebrew and Chinese systems, harmonize the lunar and solar years quite well the new Hebrew year Rosh Hashanah always falls in September or October and the Chinese new year is always celebrated in January or February.
In 2014, the second new moon after the winter solstice falls on January 31 Happy New Year.
Why doesn t fall of the Chinese New Year New Year's Day, doesn Chinese year.