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本帖最后由 ngsunyu 于 2026-2-17 05:35 编辑
Today is Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival (春节), marks the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar which uses a 13th month periodically to align with the seasons, whereas a pure lunar calendar (e.g., Islamic calendar) has 12 months, resulting in a 354-day year that drifts through seasons. Therefore Chinese New Year and Lunar New Year dates may differ. For example, the strictly lunar new year in 2026 is June 16 due to the shifting of 11~12 days earlier each year relative to the Gregorian calendar.
The Chinese calendar defines the lunisolar month containing the winter solstice as the eleventh month, meaning that Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice (rarely the third, if an intercalary month occurs, as in 2026 since the 2025 winter solstice was Dec 21).
The Chinese zodiac, as an essential part of Chinese culture, started to take shape during the Han Dynasty. This era formalizes a twelve-year cycle, where each year is associated with a specific animal, as part of a timekeeping system. This system, known as the zodiac cycle, combined the twelve Earthly Branches (地支) with the ten Heavenly Stems (天干) to create a total of a 60-year cycle. Each Earthly Branch was linked to an animal, and to the twelve zodiac signs: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. |
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