Chinese New Year - What is Chinese New Year and Chinese Calendar

Chinese New Year 2007 Year of Pig

Chinese calendar consists of both the Gregorian and a lunar-solar calendrical systems. The lunar-solar calendar systems divide a year into twelve month each month divided equally into thirty-nine and a half days. The well-coordinated dual system calendar reflects the Chinese ingenuity.

A Chinese calendar also included a twenty-four solar terms closely related to the changes of Nature -- a very useful tool for farmers, providing information on the proper time for planting and harvesting.

On the Chinese Calendar also include terminology like Tian Gan and Di Zhi (Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch), a Chinese way of marking the years in a sixty-year cycle. There is also a system that marks the years in a twelve-year cycle, naming each of them after an animal such as Rat, Ox, Tiger, Hare, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Boar. BTW, I was born in the year of Sheep. The Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival celebration, which begins with the new moon for fifteen days and ends with the full moon. You can see why it is called the Lunar New Year!

This Chinese New Year is the Year of the Pig. Festivities begin on 19 February 2007 Sunday.

The Chinese calendar has a twelve-year cycle and each year of the cycle is named after an animal.

The Chinese celebrate their new year in many ways. They hang colorful paper lanterns, set off firecrackers, give “hongbao” (money in red envelopes), stay up all night, and, of course, get together and feast!

1	Beginning of Spring	usually starting from the fourth or fifth of February. And the first day is the Chinese New Year's Day or the onset of the Spring Festival. Incidentally, the New Year's Day of 1995 is January 31st.
2	Rain Water	from the nineteenth or twentieth of February, a time when rainy seasons are setting in.
3	Waking of Insects	from the fifth or sixth of March, as the earth awakes from hibernation;
4	Spring Equinox	from the twentieth or twenty-first of March;
5	Pure Brightness	from the fourth or fifth of April;
6	Grain Rain	from the twentieth or twenty-first of April;
7	Beginning of Summer	from the fifth or sixth of May;
8	Grain Full	from the twentieth or twenty-first of May;
9	Grain in Ear	from the fifth or sixth of June;
10	Summer Solstice	from the twenty-first or second of June;
11	Slight Heat	from the sixth or seventh of July;
12	Great Heat	from the twenty-second or third of July;
13	Beginning of Autumn	from the seventh or eighth of August;
14	Limit of Heat	from the twenty-third or fourth of August;
15	White Dew	from the seventh or eighth of September;
16	Autumnal Equinox	from the twenty-third or fourth of September;
17	Cold Dew	from the eighth or ninth of October;
18	Frost's Descent	from the twentieth-three or fourth of October;
19	Beginning of Winter	from the seventh or eighth of November;
20	Slight Snow	from the twenty-second or third of November;
21	Great Snow	from the seventh or eighth of December;
22	Winter Solstice	from the twenty-second or third of December;
23	Slight Cold	from the fifth or sixth of January; and lastly
24	Great Cold	from the twentieth or twenty-first of January which brings the 24-term cycle to an end.