Is the zodiac divided by vernal equinox or New Year's Eve?

The zodiac should be counted from beginning of spring.

The traditional New Year in China is not on the first day of the first month, but in beginning of spring. The critical point of entering a new day is not 12 in the morning.

It is understood that in the traditional culture of China, one day and night is divided into twelve hours, each hour is equivalent to two hours now, and these twelve hours are named after twelve earthly branches, namely, Zi, Ugly, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Noon, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai; Each hour is divided into three parts, namely initial time, timing time and last time; Every morning from 1 1 to 1 in the morning, and so on.

It can be seen that the traditional dividing line for a new day in China is eleven o'clock midnight, instead of twelve o'clock (zero point) used in the current Gregorian calendar.

Ye Chunsheng, a folklorist at Sun Yat-sen University, said that the current "lunar calendar" in China is actually the "lunar calendar" that was used in the Han Dynasty, and it is based on the accurate calculation of the earth's rotation. The new year should be the beginning of spring. At present, the tradition of taking the first day of the first month as the New Year was stipulated in the form of a document in the second year of the Republic of China (19 12).