Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional culture - Doubts about the 24 Solar Terms and the Lunar Calendar

Doubts about the 24 Solar Terms and the Lunar Calendar

First of all: no one has ever said that the Mangyong is the beginning of the fifth month of the lunar calendar!

Because the 24 Solar Terms and the Lunar Calendar don't have a pattern at all, there is no equivalence.

The reason for this is that the lunar calendar is a calendar formulated with reference to the orbit of the moon; whereas the 24 solar terms are dates formulated with reference to the orbit of the sun (which is similar to the solar calendar).

The pattern of the lunar calendar and the solar calendar is that the lunar and solar dates coincide every nineteen years; whereas the twenty-four solar terms can be said to coincide with a certain date in the solar calendar, with a general error of no more than one day due to the intercalary balance. This is why the traditional Qingming Festival is different from other traditional festivals (Qingming Festival is based on the fifth day of the fourth month of the solar calendar, while other traditional festivals are based on the lunar calendar time).