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

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 Chinese traditional culture, one day and night is divided into twelve hours, each hour is equivalent to the present two hours, and the twelve hours are named after twelve earthly branches, namely, Zi, Ugly, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai; Each hour is divided into three parts, namely initial time, timing time and last time; Every morning 1 1 till midnight 1, and so on.

It can be seen that the traditional dividing line of a new day in China is eleven o'clock at 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 a "lunar calendar" that was used in the Han Dynasty and is based on the accurate calculation of the earth's rotation. The new year should be the beginning of spring. At present, we follow the tradition that the first day of the first month is the New Year, which was stipulated in the form of a document in the second year of the Republic of China (19 12).