Is it a lunar calendar or a solar calendar? The lunar calendar is a combination of yin and yang.

Lead: When it comes to the Lunar New Year, many people are at a loss. Is it a lunar calendar or a solar calendar? Maybe the lunar calendar, maybe the solar calendar? Actually, none of them are right. The lunar calendar is a combination of yin and yang. The solar calendar here does not refer to the solar calendar we use now, but the ancient "solar calendar" is actually the twenty-four solar terms. So the lunar calendar we are talking about now is a very complicated calendar. It's not simple, I can't say a word or two clearly!

Is it a lunar calendar or a solar calendar? The lunar calendar is a combination of yin and yang.

The lunar calendar is not a lunar calendar or a solar calendar, but a combined calendar of yin and yang, commonly known as the summer calendar. But people usually call the lunar calendar the lunar calendar!

traditional Chinese calendar

The lunar calendar is based on the change of the moon phase (that is, the new moon). Because the ancients called the moon the lunar calendar, it is also called the lunar calendar, which is a pure lunar calendar. In China, the term "lunar calendar" is used, and most people call it "lunar calendar", which is wrong. The lunar calendar is not a pure lunar calendar, but a "yin and yang calendar".

The lunar calendar takes the full and short periods of the moon as one month, and 12 months as one year. However, the moon has a full moon, which is 29 days, 12: 44: 3, which is more than 29 days and less than 30 days. For convenience, the lunar calendar divides months into two types: big month and small month. 30 days a month, 29 days a month, 354 days a year.

In fact, the new moon is not exactly equal to the average of the big moon and the small moon-29 days and a half, but 44 minutes and 2.8 seconds more than 29 days and a half. So 12 moon is actually 8 hours, 48 minutes and 34 seconds longer than 354 days, and it will be 1 1 day in 30 years. Therefore, a leap year 1 1 will be inserted in the 30 years of the lunar calendar, and an extra day will be added in the 12 months of each leap year. The leap year in the lunar calendar is a day. In this way, there are 19 354 days and 1 1 year in the lunar calendar every 30 years, and the average length of a year is 354 days, 8 hours and 48 minutes. Its year is almost shorter than the tropical year 1 1 day. In three years, we lost more than a month, and 17 lost more than half a year. So with this length of time, the New Year doesn't have to be spent in winter, but it can be spent in spring, summer and autumn. Its only advantage is that the shape of the moon can be known on every date of the lunar calendar.

As a calendar, the lunar calendar is not in harmony with agricultural production and people's daily life, so in today's world, except for a few countries that are still in use for religious reasons, other countries have generally abandoned it.

China traditional calendar

The lunar calendar is also called the lunar calendar and the summer calendar. The lunar calendar is based on the new moon. The time of the first month of the lunar calendar is 29th 12 hours, 44 minutes and 3 seconds (i.e. 29.6 days), so the lunar calendar is also 30 days for the big month and 29 days for the small month, but it is not exactly the same as the pure lunar calendar, because the pure lunar calendar is arranged alternately with big and small months, and the size and month of the lunar calendar are determined by calculation.

The lunar calendar takes the time of the first month of the lunar calendar as the average time of the calendar month. This is the same as the pure lunar calendar, but the lunar calendar adopts the method of setting leap months and 24 solar terms, so that the average length of the calendar year is equal to the tropic year, which has the elements of the solar calendar, so it is better than the pure lunar calendar.

It is said that our ancestors used this calendar in all lunar calendars as early as the Xia Dynasty (before17th century BC). So people also call it the summer calendar. After liberation, it was still called the summer calendar. After 1970, it was renamed as the "Lunar Calendar" in China. As for the origin of the name "lunar calendar", it is probably because the country has been founded on agriculture since ancient times, so the calendar must serve agriculture.

The first day of each month in the lunar calendar happens to be a "new moon" (that is, the moon is in the middle of the sun and the earth faces the earth with half of the darkness). Sometimes there may be two big months or two small months in a row. Because the first month of the lunar calendar is slightly longer than 29 and a half days, there are about 53 big months and 47 small months in every 100 calendar month of the lunar calendar.

The lunar calendar basically takes1February as a year, but the time of 12 lunar month is 354.3667 days, which is about 1 1 day different from the tropical year. This will add 33 days every three years, that is, an extra month.

In order to eliminate the extra days, one month is added every three years, which is the leap month of the lunar calendar. A year with a leap month is also called a leap year. Therefore, the lunar leap year has 13 months. As for the leap month, it is determined by the solar terms.

The 24 Solar Terms

Twenty-four solar terms originated in the Yellow River Basin. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, four solar terms were set, namely, mid-spring, mid-summer, mid-autumn and mid-winter. After continuous improvement and perfection, by the Qin and Han Dynasties, the 24 solar terms had been completely established. In BC 104, the taichu calendar written by Deng Ping officially set 24 solar terms in the calendar, and defined the astronomical position of the 24 solar terms.

The time when the sun runs along the longitude of the Yellow River from zero 15 degrees is called "a solar term". It runs 360 degrees every year, and * * * experiences 24 solar terms, twice a month. Among them, the first solar term of each month is "solar term", that is, beginning of spring, Jingzhe, Qingming, Changxia, Mangzhong, Xiaoshu, beginning of autumn, Bailu, Hanlu, beginning of winter, Heavy Snow, Xiaohan, etc. 12 solar terms; The second solar term of each month is "Zhongqi", that is, there are 12 solar terms such as rain, vernal equinox, Grain Rain, Xiaoman, summer solstice, great heat, intense heat, autumnal equinox, first frost, light snow, winter solstice and great cold. "Solar term" and "neutral qi" appear alternately, each lasting 15 days. Now people have called "solar terms" and "neutral gas" solar terms.

Twenty-four solar terms reflect the apparent movement of the sun in one year, so the dates of solar terms are basically fixed in the current Gregorian calendar, with the first half of the year being 6 days and 2 1, and the second half being 8 days and 23 days, with a difference of 1 ~ 2 days.

In order to facilitate memory, people compiled 24 solar terms songs:

Spring rains shake spring and clear valleys,

Summer is full, summer is summer, summer is summer.

Autumn dew and autumn frost,

It snows in winter, it snows in winter, and it's a little cold in winter.

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