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Chinese (CST)

EpochConfidenceAssociated with
30 January 2697 BCE +16:00:00MediumBeijing

Overview

The Chinese calendar is an observational lunisolar calendar used by much of East Asia with a long history dating back to ancient China.

It features numerically-named months (月 "yue") of 29 or 30 days (日 "ri") that begin on the same day as the New Moon in China (CST), with an intercalary month added on leap years that happen roughly every 2 or 3 solar years (年 "nian"). Years are also named in a 12-year cycle of the 12 Earthly Branches (Chinese Zodiac).

Different versions of this calendar use different eras, but this website uses 2697 BCE as the Year of the Yellow Emperor (2698 BC), a date which was standardized by Sun Yat-sen in 1912 despite there being controversy over the exact date.

Info

The Chinese calendar is one of the most widespread calendars in history, used by various cultures in Asia and around the world either directly or as a base.

Year CycleEnglish
Rat
Ox
Tiger
Rabbit
Dragon
Snake
Horse
Goat
Monkey
Rooster
Dog
Pig

Accuracy

Calculating this calendar is very difficult and requires calculating the Winter Solstice, Longitude of the Sun, and any given New Moon. Due to the difficulty of this calculation, months and days might be off by 1 at times, though they typically self-correct by the next month. Rarely, the leap month may be incorrect, especially in cases where the new moon and solstice happen on the same day.

Source

This equation was based off of the steps found here.

General information was taken from the Wikipedia article for this calendar.