What Is a Lunar Month?

The lunar calendar (nóng lì) is a traditional Chinese calendar, and it also has names such as Chinese calendar, summer calendar, Chinese calendar, and Chinese calendar. The lunar calendar is not a pure lunar calendar, but a combination of yin and yang. The cycle of changing the phases of the moon is the length of the lunar month, adding the "twenty-four solar terms" component of the dry branch calendar, and referring to the return of the sun to the length of the year. In order to adapt the average calendar year to the return year. The lunar calendar is a calendar based on the Chinese calendar (the lunar calendar), which is a combination of the solar calendar. Therefore, in the strict sense, the Chinese lunar calendar should not be called a lunar calendar, but a yin and yang calendar. ^[1-2]

[nóng lì]

Lunar Month Overview

Before 1645, the lunar calendar used a flat-air injection calendar, and the probability of a leap month after each month was equal. Later, the fixed gas injection calendar was used, and the probability of occurrence of leap months in each month became unequal. The following are the statistics of each month in the thousand years from 1645 to 2644.

Statistical table of the number of occurrences each leap month between 1645-2644 AD:

Occurrences per month

first month 6 times

2323 times in February

4747 times in March

6161 times in April

7474 times in May

59June 59 times

51July 51 times

2626 times in August

88 times in September

9October 9 times

Winter Moon 5 times

0 Months

It can be seen from the above that there are more moons in the summer half year and fewer moons in the winter half year. The reason is that the earth's distant point appears in early July (between summer solstice and light summer) and the near point appears in early January (between winter solstice and light cold). Slower, there is a greater probability of inertia months. However, since the perihelion and distant points are constantly moving, assuming that the future setting rules are not changed, the frequency of occurrence of each lunar month in the long term will be different from the present.

Other calculations indicate that the Lunar New Year will appear again in 2262 and the Lunar Moon will appear again in 3358 (the first day of the Lunar month corresponds to January 21, 3359, and this calendar month has only the "Lichun" solar term).

The following is the statistics of the number of leap months in 2000 to 7999.

Occurrences per month

32

41February 41 times

101101 times in March

196 times in April

289May 289 times

367 times in June

351 times in July

316 times in August

231September 231

150150 times in October

Winter months 97 times

39 Months

Lunar Month

The first month of the lunar calendar is called the first month by convention. November and December in the lunar calendar are called winter and lunar months, respectively, but winter months are rarely used. The idiom "Winter Winter Moon" which means the cold climate is derived from this, which literally means that October, November, and December are the coldest months of the year.

The first ten days of a lunar month are customarily called the first day in sequence, such as the second day of the first month, called the second day of the first month; the eleventh day to the twentieth day and the thirtieth day directly use the number of days, such as the first The fifteenth day (Lantern Festival) is called the fifteenth day of the first month; the twenty-first to the twenty-ninth days are customarily called the next day, and some Tongsheng call it the chanting day. The twenty-second day is called the second day of the first month or the second day of the first month. Each month of the lunar calendar has a different alias. Because it is closely related to agricultural production, from February to September, it is almost represented by plants. The following is another name for the twelve months of the lunar calendar:

First month: Duan Yue, Yuan Yue, Yue Yue, Si Chun, Meng Chun, Shouyang

Lunar calendar images and nicknames (13 photos)

February: Xingyue, Huayue, Ruyue, Zhongchun, Huoxiang

March: Taoyue, Tongyue, Yingshi, Yangchun, Late Spring, Jichun

April: Yinyue, Meiyue, Yuyue, Qinghe, Huai Xu, Meng Xia

May: Lunar Moon, Poison Moon, Pu Yue, Midsummer, Tianzhong, Yushu

June: Lotus Moon, Liyue, Lin Zhong, Fuyue, Summer, Seasonal Summer

July: Lan Yue, Qiao Yue, Gu Yue, Xiang Yue, Meng Qiu, Shou Qiu

August: Guiyue, Zhuangyue, Zhongqiu, Nangong, Zhongshang

September: Juyue, Xuanyue, Seasonal Autumn, Late Autumn, Mu Shang

October: Liangyue, Yangyue, Zichun, Meng Dong

November: Winter Moon, Lei Yue, Gu Yue, Midwinter

December: Lunar, Tu Yue, Jiaping, Ji Dong, Ice Moon

Note: The first month is not another name, but the official name of the first month of the lunar calendar.

The poetic name of each month in the lunar calendar named after the flower is nicknamed: the first month--the willow moon, the silver willow vase head, also known as the willow moon; February--the apricot moon, the apricot blossom branch, also known as the apricot moon; March-- Peach month, peach blossom face shame, also known as peach month; April-Huaiyue, full of branches of Huaihua, also known as Huaiyue; May-lunar month, pomegranate red like fire, also known as lunar month; June The lotus month, the lotus blooms in the pond, also known as the lotus month; July Qiaoyue, the opening of the impatiens festival, also known as Qiaoyue; August-the laurel, the sweet-scented osmanthus, also known as the laurel; Month-chrysanthemum month, chrysanthemum proud of frost and snow, also known as chrysanthemum month; October-yang month, hibiscus shows Xiaoyang, also known as yang month; November-leap month, sedge grass spit green head, also known as Month; December-the moon, Lamei spit the fragrance, also known as the moon. In addition, there are many other names for the lunar month.

Advantages of the lunar calendar

1. The lunar calendar is a yin-yang calendar, a calendar that takes into account the relationship between the sun, the moon, and the earth. The lunar calendar is a fixed calendar. It has the characteristics of an astronomical almanac, which can correspond to various celestial phenomena. For example, its solar terms strictly correspond to the height of the sun, calendar days correspond to the phases of the moon more strictly, and the frequency of occurrence of the moon and its frequency correspond to the earth Proximal and distant points, other astronomical phenomena such as the absence of sunrise, morning shadows, five-star azimuth, eclipse, tide, etc., even the calendar month roughly corresponds to the height of the sun;

2. The number of days in the lunar calendar is only 29th and 30th, and it is stipulated by the Dingshuo date. The human factor is small and it is not easy to change at will;

3. The head of the year has strong astronomical significance, and it has astronomical significance in the yin, moon, and sun years;

4. The calendar of yin and yang reflects the traditional culture of the unity of man and nature and harmony of yin and yang;

5. The dry branches and the zodiac are used cyclically; because it contains solar terms, it is very conducive to the division of the four seasons, and because it contains the moon phases, it also reflects the effects of the tide, solar and lunar eclipses and the moon on the climate.

Lunar name comparison

The standard name of the Gregorian calendar is the Gregorian calendar. It was named after the Gregorian XIII who reformed this calendar.

It is called the "gregorian calendar" because it is basically universal and common in the world.

After it was introduced to China, the Republic of China began to use the traditional calendar and summer calendar together, so a variety of aliases appeared to distinguish the two. The comparison is as follows:

Gregorian calendar nickname and its reason	Lunar calendar alias and its reason
Gregorian calendar: the basic universal calendar	Lunar calendar: a calendar that reflects agricultural time (more scientific)
Western calendar: from western countries	Chinese calendar: Chinese calendar; Chinese calendar: Han calendar.
Gregorian calendar: The type is a solar calendar (solar calendar). It is the most popular solar calendar in China, so it is called solar calendar	Lunar calendar: The Chinese people mistakenly claim that the lunar calendar is a yin and yang calendar, but the lunar date basically corresponds to the lack of a full moon and a full moon. The nature of the lunar calendar is obvious.
New calendar: New calendar	Old calendar: original old calendar; old calendar: similar to old calendar
National Calendar: The Republic of China began to adopt this name	Summer calendar: One said that it started in the Xia Dynasty calendar, and one said that it was the same as Xia Zhengjianyin (the first year is January 1)

Lunar Calendar Answers

Ming Jiajing's three-year calendar

There are occasional doubts in this year that there is no "New Year's Thirty Years" and that year there is "New Year's Thirty Years". Why? Another person said that the difference between "Da Jing" and "Xiao Jing" was caused. In fact, the lunar calendar is different from year to month, and the lunar calendar stipulates that the first day of each month must be a astronomically accurate day of the new moon. Therefore, calculating the size of the lunar month is also called Dingshuo.

The first day of each month of the lunar calendar is called the new day, and the last day of each month is called the obscure day (here, the obscure refers to the meaning of no moon and dullness, which has nothing to do with good or bad). (New Year's Eve and New Year's Eve are called New Year's Eve). To be precise, New Year's Eve is a dark day in the lunar calendar every December, and the date is fixed every year. In this way, some people may ask, New Year's Eve is sometimes the 29th day of the lunar calendar and sometimes the 30th day of the December. How can it be said to be fixed? Obviously not fixed! In fact, the reason is this, no matter whether New Year's Eve is on the 29th or 30th of the lunar calendar, that day is the dark day of the lunar calendar, so it is really fixed.

As for saying "the 30th year of the Chinese New Year" is just a folk name, not a formal name. Because the lunar month is thirty days, using that common name can be used to indicate without any ambiguity that it is the last day of December in the lunar calendar, because if the lunar December is a big month, New Year's Eve is December 30th. However, when December in the lunar calendar happens to be a small month, December 29th is New Year's Eve. Commonly known as "New Year's Eve" is not a big deal. However, it is urged to use the titles of New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and New Year's Day, because some misunderstandings can be effectively avoided.

As for saying that the lunar December in a certain year is just a small month, and the 29th day of the lunar calendar is called "the big year 30", and the 28th day of the lunar calendar is called "the big year 29" This practice and title is strictly inappropriate and should be corrected and avoided. Because the lunar calendar is a very complete and practical calendar, the use of the lunar calendar is based on the date of the lunar calendar. Therefore, if the lunar December coincides with a small month in a certain year, the 28th of December can be called "the lunar month" and the next day is still the "lunar month" and the day of New Year's Eve. This usage is the correct way to use the lunar calendar. If you can pay attention to these small details, it will be more conducive to the inheritance and continuation of Chinese traditional culture.