Ethnic Chinese people celebrate Chinese New Year 2573 on February 1, 2022. There is an interesting history behind this Chinese New Year calendar.
The Lunar Calendar is named Lunar because it comes from the phrase "Yin-li" in Chinese which literally means Lunar/Candrakala/Lunar/Kamariah Calendar.
Even though in reality, the Lunar calendar is a Lunisolar calendar (Surya-Candrakala, Syamsi-Kamariah) because it has to adjust to the fall of the seasons.
Initially, the calculation of the Lunar calendar was based on the annual pseudo-circulation of the Sun or Suryakala/Solar/Syamsiah. In one year, it is divided into five phases according to the number of elements in Wuxing (literally means five elements) namely wood, fire, earth, metal and water.
Each phase is 72 days old and is subdivided into two 36-day months, so that a year contains 10 months and 360 days.
One month consists of three weeks, with each week there are 12 days. The 12 days of the week are symbolized by 12 animals in Chinese mythology, namely rats, buffalo, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, goats, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs.
Calendar change
Furthermore, the calendar underwent changes from time to time so that in the end the time zone change from Shanghai benchmark time (UT+8.05.43) to China benchmark time (UT+8) since 1901 affected the calculation of 24 chi and the phase of the new Moon.
Until 1949, China implemented daylight saving time by adding 1 hour in spring and summer (to UT+9) and returning the time to autumn and winter (to UT+8).
From 1949 to 1985, China did not set daylight saving time. Meanwhile, from 1985 to 1991, China reinstated daylight saving time. China subsequently abolished daylight saving time since 1992 and remains in effect today.
5 The origin of the numbering of the Chinese calendar year
Huangdi Year: using the early epoch of the Yellow Emperor's reign (2697 BC), 2022 = year 4720 of the Huangdi era
Year of Yao: using the early epoch of Emperor Yao's reign (2156 BC), 2022 = year 4178 of the Yao era
Year of Gonghe: using the early epoch of the Gonghe Duchy (841 BC), 2022 = year 2863 of the Gonghe era
Year of Confucius: using the epoch of Kongfuzi's birth (551 BC), 2022 = year 2573 of the Confucian era. This calendar is used in Southeast Asia
Year of Qin: uses the early epoch of Emperor Qin's reign (221 BC), 2022 = year 2243 of the Qin era.