Question No.  2304 :
A complete cycle of the Chinese Year is said to cover 60 years. What are the names for each of the subdivisions of the cycle? What are the 12 names of animals used for each year? Are the months also based on lunar movements? Do months have names? How is the number of days in a month regulated? What astronomical (lunar) event marks the beginning the Chinese New Year?

It is well known that the ancient Chinese reckoned their days, months and years by a sexagenary cycle formed from the combination of 10 celestial stems (tian-gan) and 12 terrestrial branches (di-zhi). The 10 celestial stems are jia, yi, bing, ding, wu, ji, geng, xin, ren, gui. The 12 terrestrial branches are zi, chou, yin, mao, chen, si, wu, wei, shen, you, xu, hai. Each double name in the cycle consists of a stem name and a branch name. In order to complete the cycle of 60 the 10 stem names are repeated six times alongside the 12 branch names, which are repeated five times. As a result of such combination of stem names and branch names, the sequence is as follows: 1 jia-zi 2 yi-chou 3 bing-yin 4 ding-mao 5 wu chen 6 ji-si 7 geng-wu 8 xin-wei 9 ren-shen 10 gui-you 11 jia-xu 12 yi-hai 13 bing-zi 14 ding-chou 15 wu-yin 16 ji-mao 17 geng-chen 18 xin-si 19 ren-wu 20 gui-wei 21 jia-shen 22 yi-you 23 bing-xu 24 ding-hai 25 wu-zi 26 ji-chou 27 geng-yin 28 xin-mao 29 ren-chen 30 gui-si 31 jia-wu 32 yi-wei 33 bing-shen 34 ding-you 35 wu-xu 36 ji-hai 37 geng-zi 38 xin-chou 39 ren-yin 40 gui-mao 41 jia-chen 42 yi-si 43 bing-wu 44 ding-wei 45 wu-shen 46 ji-you 47 geng-xu 48 xin-hai 49 ren-zi 50 gui-chou 51 jia-yin 52 yi-mao 53 bing-chen 54 ding-si 55 wu-wu* 56 ji-wei 57 geng-shen 58 xin-you 59 ren-xu 60 gui-hai * two different characters; the first wu is celestial stem, the second wu is terrestrial branch. According to Chinese tradition, different terrestrial branch corresponds to different animal. The 12 animals are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig, correspondingly. For example, zi corresponds to rat, and mao corresponds to rabbit. Since 1999 is the year of ji-mao, it is known as year of the rabbit. The length of a particular month in the Chinese calendar is determined strictly by the period between successive new moons. This average synodic month is 29.5306 days. Therefore, the Chinese year normally consists of 12 lunations of alternately 30 days for a 'big month' and 29 days for a 'small month.' The lunar months were given different names in literature. To an ordinary person, they are known as Month No. 1, Month No 2, and so on. Unlike the Muslim lunar year, the Chinese lunar year has always been adjusted to the length of the solar year. To bring the lunar year back into line with the solar year, one month is intercalated in a period of 3 years, or two in a period of 5 years, or seven in a period of 19 years. Hence, the Chinese lunar year normally has 354 days. For a leap year, there are 384 days. The solar year is divided into 24 equal portions, using the equinoxes and solstices as four fixed points. Each portion is called a jie (node) and has 15.218 days. The first jie of the lunar year is li-chun (advent of spring) during the first week of February. Due to the intercalation of the leap month, the date of Chinese Lunar New Year varies from year to year. It always falls on the New Moon Day between 21 January and 20 February. Question Asked By:

Name: sundaram

Age Group: 30 and above

Occupation Type: Retired Personnel

Education Level: Post Graduate