2010 Year of the Tiger

[Xiao3 Meng4]

LOL... you guy's can justify your take on the doo doo all you want, doesn't change the fact that the official start of the tiger year is on feburary 14th, which coincides with the natural cosmic phenomenom known as the new moon... the calendar is based on the lunar cycles... resynchronizing the year all you want does not change the day of the new moon.

You're right, the new moon is key. In fact, the Feb 14th date of the new year is the RESULT of this resynchronization!

The Chinese Calendar is not strictly a lunar calendar.

If the Chinese Calendar was a strictly lunar calendar, then it would follow similar rules to the islamic calendar, which IS a lunar calendar only. Have you ever looked at the Islamic calendar?

A lunar year of 12 months is made up of roughly 354 lunar days, which is 11 days shorter than a solar year.* This means that every new year starts 11 days earlier than the one before.

Ok, so let's use the lunar calendar to calculate the new year. If we use the coming new moon (Feb 14) as the beginning of the new year, then about 354 days later we will have our next new year, which would start around Feb 3rd. 354 days after that comes our next new year, which would be around Jan 23rd. The year after that it would be Jan 12, then Jan 1, then Dec 20, Dec 9, and so on.
This means that the lunar new year is not tied to the solar year; it would arrive earlier and earlier in the year, making the new year regress through the seasons, taking roughly 19 years to return to the original season.

If a culture wanted to use the moon to keep track of the year, but wanted to start the year according to the seasons, which are solarly governed, then they could tie the two together and start the lunar new year by picking the new moon which was closest to the solar beginning of a season (solar beginning of spring, for instance.) In doing so, they would have to grasp the changes in the lunar count (whether the lunar year was shorter or longer than the solar year, whether there were 3 moons or 4 in a growing season) which is where the qualitative associations of Elements and Animals come in.

Therefore the Chinese Calendar is a combined lunar - solar, or luni-solar calendar.

*If 13 lunar months are being used to make up a lunar year, then the year is 382 days long - 17 days longer than a solar year, which means that every new year starts 17 days later than the one before. The new year therefore progresses through the seasons.

What's Twilight?

You lucky lucky man.

[Lucas]

What's twilight?

i think its some movie or tv show that teenage girls and their moms rave about.

[uki]

A lunar year of 12 months is made up of roughly 354 lunar days, which is 11 days shorter than a solar year.* This means that every new year starts 11 days earlier than the one before.

ah ha!! this is the problem... there are 13 lunar months in one solar year... 28 days per moon, 364 days, one day of time out.

If 13 lunar months are being used to make up a lunar year, then the year is 382 days long - 17 days longer than a solar year, which means that every new year starts 17 days later than the one before. The new year therefore progresses through the seasons.

how did you come up with 382 days?? a lunar month is 28 days, which is the same for the average menstrual cycle of a woman and the time it takes for cement to cure... one lunar month... personally i think the chinese system the way you describe it is made too complicated... it's really quite simple to follow a solar year according to lunar months.

[Xiao3 Meng4]

I'm sure you understand the delusion of ideal time; while every cycle is repeated procedurally, one phase after the other, the cycles themselves are not equal in linear time (length.)

If every lunar month had exactly 28 days, you would be right in your calculation. Some months in every year are longer though, with up to 30 days in them. As such, a 12 month lunar calendar is short compared to the solar calendar, while a 13 month lunar calendar is long.

One way to avoid the problem of the lunar new year receding or progressing through the seasons (if that's a problem at all) is to alternate between long (13 month) and short (12 month) years. What remains is the problem of where the new year should be in relation to the solar calendar. How would you decide that?

Regarding how I came up w/ 382 days: "I think I made a mistake" is how I came up with it. around 370 days is a better number for a 13 month lunar year.

[GeneChing]

Well said again, Xiao3 Meng4.

What's even more confusing is that the year of the Chinese calendar is somewhat subject to academic opinion. Depending upon when you set year one, this is either 4708, 4707 or 4647. I lean towards 4708, mostly because that's the date that the S.F. parade sets its calendar on.

That might seem "too complicated" to you, uki, but consider 4000+ years of history. Remember when there was a movement to create a metric calendar? The world accepted that just like America accepted the metric system.

There's value in complexity. For example, I'm fairly skeptical about astrology (I know, ironic since I've been working on this horoscope column for a decade now). However, in Western astrology, I am a firm believer in Mercury in Retrograde. It's an absurd theory, a metaphysical CYA developed to account for an inaccurate fundamental assumption of the arrangement of planets. Nevertheless, at least for me personally, it has a rather robust effect. Superstition or not, I heed is as much as I heed the placebo effect.

[Eddie]

happy new year. Its cold, wet and the air smells like gun powder

新年快乐， 恭喜发财

[uki]

here something i find very interesting... http://www.tortuga.com/portal/home

regardless, the tiger energy does not click on until the new moon... so therefore the 14th is the OFFICIAL start of the tiger year, not the 4th.

[Eddie]

the 14th is in like 5 hours. whats your point?

[emptyfist]

interesting thread. to answer eddie's question, fixing of the first day of the year is of vital importance in the orient based on the cultural belief that, among other reasons, whatever happens on the first day of the year is an omen for the rest of the year

on uki's posts, if i read them correctly, i think he might be asking what astronomical phenomenon is associated with february 4th. this is a valid point, as february 14th is the new moon, an observable event. thus would this be a better candidate then february 4th as the marker for the new year?

from what i understand, the feng shui calendar is an approximation of celestial movement. the feng shui movement does not tally their events entirely against observable astronomical events anymore, though it might have done so in the distant past. instead it is based on mathematical calculations, in effect, it has become a semi-numerological system. but this does not seem to have affected its efficacy nor does the feng shui bazi system claim to be an astronomical/astrological system in the first place.

In contrast, the indian and muslim system of event date fixing are still based on astronomical observation. for example, for the recent tamil festival of thaipusam, the date is calibrated with the moon passing a certain star formation in the sky. muslim astronomers are even more fastidious, some of their major festivals start only when the new moon is directly observable in the sky. if the moon is hidden by heavy cloud cover, there is no new moon.

disclaimer: i am not an astrologer/astronomer.

[uki]

all this mess is another fine example of mankinds drift away from being in synch with the harmonies of nature... before the clock, a day was from sun-up to sun-down... before the calendar, a year was 13 moons long with one day left for play...

so my question to those in defense of star-quakery here... a baby is born on feb. 5th, is it a tiger or an ox??

[Xiao3 Meng4]

Hehe, this is funny...

2010 - "Lunar New Year beginning" = February 14th (why not any other new moon?)

13 lunar months later...

2011 - "Lunar New Year" = March 4th

13 months later...

2012 - "Lunar New Year" = March 22nd

13 months later...

2013 - "Lunar New Year" = April 10th

13 months later...

2014 - "Lunar New Year" = April 29th

...Get my drift?

This is absolutely fine if you favor a 13 month lunar calendar over other calendars. Likewise, a Solar Calendar may be preferred over a lunar one. Alternately, a combined calendar may be used. This is what I advocate. The Sun is as important as the moon.

Re a kid born on Feb 5th: depends on what the heck timescale you're looking at. If it's on a yearly scale, then the child will be an earth ox by convention. On a monthly scale, the child would be a water ox.

[uki]

Re a kid born on Feb 5th: depends on what the heck timescale you're looking at. If it's on a yearly scale, then the child will be an earth ox by convention.

thank you for your response.

[Xiao3 Meng4]

LOL!

Happy New Year.

[uki]

LOL!

Happy New Year.

thank you... i have waited 36 years for this one.

[Xiao3 Meng4]

36 years ago the sun was in the same phase of sunspot activity as it is now.

Go Tigers!