Chinese New Year
Year of Dog–the longest year over the past 62 years
Shuibao Liu, ONUG
The Chinese New Year, the Year of Dog,
starts on 29 January 2006 and will terminate
on 17 February 2007. In total this
lunar year has 385 days, the longest over
the past 62 years. Last time was in 1944. You may
wish to know why.
First we have to distinguish the Lunar Calendar
and the Gregorian Calendar. The Lunar calendar is
based on the exact astronomical observations of
the longitude of the sun and the phases of the
moon.
To determine a Lunar year, at least two astronomical
calculations have to be made:
First, one must determine on what dates the
new moon will appear. A new moon means the
completely «black» or “full” moon, i.e. when the
moon is in conjunction with the sun. The date of a
new moon is the first day of a new month.
Secondly, one must determine the dates when
the sun’s longitude is a multiple of 30 degrees. The
sun’s longitude is 0 at Vernal Equinox, 90 at Summer
Solstice, 180 at Autumnal Equinox, and 270 at
Winter Solstice. These dates are called the
Principal Terms and are used to determine the
number of each month:
- Principal Term 1 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 330 degrees.
- Principal Term 2 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 0 degrees.
- Principal Term 3 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 30 degrees. etc.
- Principal Term 11 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 270 degrees.
- Principal Term 12 soccurs when the sun’s longitude is 300 degrees.
Each month carries the number of the Principal
Term that occurs in that month. In rare cases, a
month may contain two Principal Terms; in this
case the months numbers may have to be shifted.
Principal Term 11 (Winter Solstice) must always
fall in the 11th month. All the astronomical calculations
are carried out for the meridian
120 degrees east of Greenwich. This roughly corresponds
to the east coast of China.
This lunar month cycle averages 29.5306 days,
but can vary by several hours for any given time of
the year. A lunar year normally consists of
12 months where a month corresponds to one
lunar cycle. Each month starts on the day of the
new moon. The Chinese New Year starts on the
second new moon after the winter solstice. Since
the cycle is not an even number of days, a month
in the lunar calendar can vary between 29 and
30 days and a normal year can be 353, 354, or
355 days, about 11 days less than the Gregorian
Calendar. The Lunar Calendar inserts a leap
month (an extra lunar month) every two to three
years, to bring it into line with the longer solar
year. The insertion and assignment of leap months
are the major difference between the Lunar Calendar
and the Gregorian Calendar. In a sense, the
Lunar Calendar is more accurate than the Gregorian
Calendar. To be accurate, there are 7 leap
months in a cycle of 19 years.
During the coming year, the Leap month will be
inserted in the 7th month. The whole year therefore
will have 13 months, with 385 days. According
to the calculation by experts, over the long
period of 2300 years from 221 B.C. until future
2100 A.D., there are only 12 years that contain
385 days.
The beginnings of the Lunar Calendar can be
traced back thousands of years. According to
legend, it was the Emperor Huangdi who invented
the Lunar calendar in 2637 B.C.. Thus, it might
be said that the coming year is the
4643rd year of Lunar Calendar.
© 2006 UN Special |