Well, the Chinese New Year coincides with the lunar calendar, where the first day of the month begins during the new moon. This means that the Chinese New Year falls on different dates each year Chinese New Year is extremely special because it’s all about tradition, celebration, and spending time with those who mean the most to you. One of the biggest questions people seem to have is about why the Chinese New Year date happens to change every 365 days. Here’s what you should know if you’re new to celebrating the holiday. During this time, people held sacrificial ceremonies in honor of gods at the beginning of the year. The date of the Chinese New Year was established during the Han Dynasty from 202 BC to 220 AD. Through the years, different ways of celebrating the New Year evolved. In 1949, the Chinese New Year was renamed the Spring Festival. Details: One year on a Gregorian calendar is 365 days, with a leftover "leap day" every few years. One year on a lunisolar calendar is 11 days shorter, and the difference gets rolled into leap months, rather than a leap day. That's why events like Lunar New Year can seem to move around a lot, when you try to map them onto the Gregorian calendar. Why is Chinese New Year on a different day every year? Because Chinese New Year festivities are based on a lunar calendar, the date changes every year on the Gregorian calendar that we generally use in the west. With that said, the date is consistent if you’re sticking to the lunar calendar – it’s all a matter of perspective. It begins anywhere between 21 January and 20 February on the Gregorian calendar, but must coincide with the lunar cycle. The first day of Chinese New Year starts with the new moon, and the last (That’s why Chinese New Year is called the Spring Festival.) And ends on the Full Moon 15 days later with the Lantern Festival. The first day of Chinese New Year is always between Jan 21st and Feb 21st. But why are Chinese New Year dates so “unpredictable”? To answer this question, one has to look at how a month in the Chinese calendar or The start of the Chinese New Year is determined by which animal's year it is, based on a 60-year cycle. This further complicates the task of pinpointing the exact date in the Gregorian calendar since each animal year can begin on a different date. 4. Why Doesn't Chinese New Year Fall on New Year's Day? Chinese New Year is never on January 1. Chinese have a different traditional date for New Year. Chinese New Year's date is determined by the Chinese lunar calendar, which is always 21–51 days behind the corresponding Gregorian (international) calendar date. Lunar New Year will always fall sometime between 21 January and 20 February. In 2023, the celebrations kick off on the earlier side, with Chinese New Year festivities beginning on Sunday, 22 Every year, the Lunar New Year marks the transition from one animal to another. The Year of the Dragon, which began on Feb. 10, 2024, ended Tuesday to begin the Year of the Snake. Chinese New Year doesn’t fall on the same day every year, because it follows the lunar calendar. According to this calendar, the new year begins on the new moon between January 21 st and February 20 th , so the exact date of the Spring Festival changes every year. Chinese New Year is on a different day every year because our western calendar (Gregorian) doesn't match with the Chinese Lunar Calendar. Thus, sometimes, the Chinese New Year lands in January Why is Chinese New Year on a different date to other New Year celebrations around the world? Find out why China will celebrate the New Year in February this year. Fireworks are a huge part of Chinese New Year celebrations, with more rockets set off on that night than on any other night of the year. However, over 500 cities in China have actually now either Mongolian lunar calendars, as well as Islamic and Jewish ones, for example, all have different months and cycles, and therefore celebrate Lunar New Year on different dates. Today, Chinese New Year is almost always celebrated on the second new moon following the winter solstice, therefore falling from late January to mid-February. Growing up, I always wondered why the Chinese New Year fell on a different date each year. My mum explained that there was a separate “Chinese” calendar that was different from the “Western It begins anywhere between 21 January and 20 February on the Gregorian calendar, but must coincide with the lunar cycle. The first day of Chinese New Year starts with the new moon, and the last Why does Chinese New Year fall on different dates? Rather than following the western Gregorian Calendar with 365-day years, the Chinese New Year follows a lunar calendar based the moon's 12 phases. As a result, an ordinary year has 12 months while a leap year has 13 months. And an ordinary year has 354, or 355 days, and a leap year has 384 or 385 days. So the first day of the first month in the lunar calendar, Chinese New Year’s Day, varies every year.
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