2024 CHINESE NEW YEAR
CHINESE NEW YEAR
(2024 is the 4722nd Chinese year)
The Date of Chinese New Year
February 10, 2024 is a Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year will always fall on or between January 21 and February 20.
People born on February 20 onwards would surely have the animal sign of their respective birthyear.
Those who were born from January 1 to January 20 would surely have the animal sign of the previous year.
If you were born after January 20 and before February 20 (i.e., January 21~ February 19), you should check on the actual date of the Chinese New Year of your birthyear—might be the previous year’s animal sign. For the year 2024, if you were born before February 10 your animal sign is that of the Rabbit and not of the Dragon.
Most of the time, Chinese New Year will fall 11 days (or sometimes 10 or 12 days) earlier than the previous year. The reason for this is that a lunar month is about 29.5 days (about 354 days only in a year). Since a solar year is almost 365.25 days, it means a lunar year is about 11 days shorter than a solar year.
If that would take outside of the Chinese New Year range of January 21 to February 20, a leap month is added. So, Chinese New Year jumps 19 days or sometimes 18, or even 20 days (in 1926 and 2007) later than the previous date of Chinese New Year.
While Gregorian calendar adds only one leap day (February 29) every four years, the Chinese calendar adds a whole leap month, approximately every three years (7 times in 19 years).
The leap month’s place in Chinese calendar varies from year to year.
The last leap month began on March 22, 2023, with the end of month 2 and beginning of intercalary month 2. The next leap month will begin on July 25, 2025, with the end of month 6 and beginning of intercalary month 6.
In the Gregorian calendar, all the months (except for February) have the same number of days in different years. In the Chinese calendar, a month may have 29 or 30 days in different years.
The Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar. It is aligned with the time it takes the Earth to orbit around the sun which is almost 365.25 days. The nearly quarter day is adjusted with the addition of a leap day every four years. Years containing a leap day are called leap years.
February 29 is the 60th day of the Gregorian calendar. In Chinese calendar, this day will only occur on zodiac years of the rat, dragon, and monkey.
You may have come across a few websites stating that year 2024 is the 4721st Chinese year. If you cannot find the explanation, here is a possible answer for you. The Yellow King's inauguration was held in the spring of 2697 B.C. But the calendar of Yellow King used the winter solstice day as the first day of the year. The winter solstice was on around December 23rd, 2698 B.C. Today's January 1st means nothing to Yellow King. If we count that extra eight days in 2698 B.C. for a year, then year 2024 is the 4722nd Chinese year.
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