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Chinese calendar
Chinese calendar
The Chinese calendar is one of the oldest heritages of the Chinese culture to the world. Chinese people are not the only ones who use them but most Asian countries do particularly in marking auspicious days and especially occasions such as the Chinese New Year. Although it was replaced by the Gregorian calendar in terms of daily use it remains important in traditional and cultural events.
The earliest record of the Chinese calendar was found back to the time of China’s Shang dynasty. It was inscribed in a bone of an ox used in divination, also known as an oracle bone. It was also used in the Zhou Dynasty where early texts were made to better comprehend the calendar. Then in the Chou period the 12 animals for the calendar years were first used. When Mao Zedong reined China in 1949, he ordered the use of the Gregorian calendar, thus the people of China had used it up to now.
The Chinese calendar is a lunar and solar calendar. It is based on the different phases of the moon and the position of the sun. The solar years in the Chinese calendar starts during the winter solstice. The beginning of a lunar year starts during midnight, in Beijing time, of the dark moon.
Like the common western calendar that we use, the Chinese calendar is also composed of twelve months but only with 353 to 355 days in a regular year. The years are named after twelve animals, also used in the famous Chinese zodiac, and an element. The animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. The elements are water, earth, metal, wood and fire. These two are combined together to name a year, for example metal-rabbit, wood-dragon and water-monkey, etc. The calendar uses a sixty-year cycle of naming.
The Chinese calendar also has a leap year. In this calendar an extra month is added making the usual twelve months thirteen. This makes it different from the Gregorian calendar which only adds a day in the month of February. In the Chinese calendar, the leap year happens every three years and it is consist of 383 to 385 days.
The Chinese New Year can occur any day between the months of January and February. It does not happen on the same day every year unlike the one in the Gregorian calendar. The Chinese calendar has no weeks that consist of seven days and its months has 29 or 30 days while the Gregorian calendar has 28, 29, 30 or 31 days.
As compared to the Chinese calendar the Gregorian calendar is more convenient to use. It is easier use and makes remembering dates of important events such as birthdays, less of a hassle. This is also helpful to farmers because it guides them in planting and harvesting crops. To mariners the Chinese calendar is very important because it guides them in determining different tidal phenomena. In the Chinese calendar, tidal changes occur approximately on the same days, so this helps mariners know when the tide is low or high and other tidal conditions without even using other instruments. The Chinese calendar is also used in determining days of good fortune and auspicious days which can be used to date special events such as weddings, business opening and business transactions. The calendar also had major influences on other calendars in Asia such as the Korean, Vietnamese, Tibetan, Japanese and Mongolian calendars. In modern times the Gregorian calendar is widely used in China and other Asian countries due to civil reasons but the traditional Chinese calendar is utilized in most households.