CHINESE CALENDAR

While the Gregorian calendar has been adopted throughout China for standard day-to-day time keeping, the Chinese calendar is still recognized regarding traditional East Asian holidays including Chinese New Year, the Duan Wu Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival. Although it is followed by many Asian cultures, it is often referred to as either the Lunar or Chinese calendar because the Chinese structured it in 500 BC. Other names for it include the Yin or Xia calendar. It was not until the Republic of China was founded in 1912 that the Gregorian calendar began to dictate time for official and business purposes.

The calendar is closely connected to astrological, solar, and agricultural occurrences. It is based on exact astronomical observations of the longitude of the sun and phases of the moon. Each month follows one cycle of the moon, so the calendar is responsible for determining the phases of the moon.  It is also often used to choose auspicious dates in accordance with astrology to determine ideal dates for particular occasions such as weddings.

Bearing many similarities with the Hebrew calendar, the Chinese calendar attempts to correspond with the tropical year, organized within a 12 months cycle. The calendar also carries a leap year that consists of 13 months. In an ordinary year the calendar is made up of 353, 354, or 355 days and during a leap year has 383, 384, or 385 days.
While most calendars calculate years in an infinite sequence, the Chinese calendar operates along a 60-year repeating cycle. Each year within the cycle carries a name consisting of a Celestial Stemm and a Terrestrial Branch.  While the Celestial Stemm has no English equivalent, the Terrestrial Branch corresponds with the 12 animals of the zodiac cycle.