Before adoption of the Western solar calendar system, China totally followed a lunar calendar in deciding the times of planting, cropping, and holiday occasions. Though today folks in China use the western calendar for most efficient matters of daily existance, the existing system still serves as the base for determining many seasonal vacations. This coexistence of 2 calendar systems has for a while been accepted by the people of China. A lunar month is decided by the period needed for the moon to finish its full cycle of twenty-nine and a half days, the standard that makes the lunar year a full eleven days shorter than its solar opposite number. This difference is formed up each nineteen years by the addition of 7 lunar months.

The Chinese calendar - like the Hebrew - is a combined solar/lunar calendar in that it strives to have its years coincide with the tropical year and its months coincide with the synodic months. It isn't surprising a few likenesses exist between the Chinese and the Hebrew calendar : An normal year has twelve months, a leap-year has 13 months. An normal year has 353, 354, or 355 days, a leap-year has 383, 384, or 385 days. When deciding on what a Chinese year looks like, one must make a number of astronomic calculations:. First, establish the dates for the new moons. Here, a new moon is the totally black moon (that is, when the moon is in association with the sun), not the 1st plain crescent utilized in the Islamic and Hebrew calendars. The date of a new moon is the 1st day of a new month.