subject: The Chinese Calendar Of A Year [print this page] The Chinese calendar incorporates parts of a lunar and a solar calendar, and it has been found that many Asian cultures have used it. It is also known after the Chinese as they were the first to develop it and use it.
Each year represents something new and is represented by an animal or bird such as this year 2010 being the Year of the Tiger. It starts from February one year and ends February of the next year to be replaced by something new.
There are nine animals, one dragon, one snake and a rooster which represents twelve in all. The animals included on this are a rat, an ox, a tiger, a rabbit, the horse, a sheep or this can be a goat, the monkey, the dog and a pig or this can also be a boar. There is a legend which explains why these are the ones that have been chosen.
The legend goes that they all wanted to be first on this calendar so the gods decided that they should all have to cross a river and the first to the other side would be the winner. The story is much longer but the rat was the winner and the pig came in last. So it was decided in the order the twelve made it to the shore from the other side, should be the order on the calendar.
This time reckoner has been used by many farmers for planting and harvesting of their crops. The working system of this has to do with the patterns of the solstices and the equinoxes and different phases of the moons cycle. Spaced fifteen degrees apart there are twenty four points which are set along the path of the sun while adjustments are made to keep the time calculation aligned. Shortly after the start of each year the Chinese New Year begins around February on a new moon cycle.
In the West at the solstice and equinox a season begins, on the one of the Chinese it begins in the centre of these. The twenty four points also represent a seasonal condition such as the one at sixty degrees meaning grain full, or the grains are plump and the one at 195 degrees is cold dew, or dew turns to frost.
There are also nine festivals during one of these years and there are two special holidays within this. As this calendar follow mainly the lunar cycle it only represent 354 days, an intercalary month has to be added every now and then or the whole thing would be out of cycle with the 365 day year. This time reckoning is mainly based on the lunar cycle whereas the western variety is based on the solar cycle.
