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 China Food Recipes >>Alcoholic Drinks in China >> What is the
solar calendar and lunar calendar? |
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What is the
solar calendar and lunar calendar?
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Since
ancient times, Chinese people have adopted
over a hundred kinds of calendars. The most
widely observed are the yang li and yin
li. The former is the solar or Gregorian
calendar that is now in use in various countries,
including China. In English, yin li means
“the lunar or agricultural calendar.”
It has been used in China since the Xia
Dynasty about three or four thousand years.
Yinli actually contain a mixture of solar
and lunar elements. The length of time of
the rotation of the moon is counted as a
month. There are 12 months in a year of
354 days, 13 months in a leap year of 384
days. In ancient China, the year was divided
into 24 solar periods, each of which is
marked by three climatic signs. Those periods
are directly related to farming and have
been observed for several thousand years.
In China, many traditional festivities in
a year are usually calculated according
to the lunar calendar.
This
article by Yang Tianqing and Daniel Kister.
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