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[timey]

We saw in a recent Morningstarr Quiz that Chinese new year can fall any time between around January 21st and February 21st. But why those dates? Well, as you may or may not be aware, the Chinese calendar is a lunar calendar, i.e. it follows the phases of the moon, with each month starting on the day of a new moon. However, as 12 lunar months are only approximately 354 days, each new year would fall earlier and earlier every year. After around 15 years Chinese new year would take place in July! So, to counteract this, an extra month is added every two to three years. This means that is it actually a lunisolar calendar, as it keeps in step with the solar year.

The mechanism for deciding when these extra months are added is complex, but to cut a long story short, the new year should occur at the second new moon following the winter solstice (as the solstice must happen in the eleventh month). This works out as sometime between the dates mentioned above.

This year, Chinese new year was on 7th February. Next year it will come forward to January 26th but the following year, 2010, it will be on February 14th, i.e. 13 lunar months after the previous one.