Cultural tips

The Lunar Calendar
The lunar calendar originated from Xia Dynasty, so it's also called "Xia calendar". As it has the directive function to the agriculture since ancient times, people call it "the lunar calendar". The lunar calendar has a strong scientific and practical nature, which is why it could hand down until now. According to the whole year's nature days, the lunar calendar is divided into four seasons, 24 solar terms and festivals. The whole year's months are set up in the light of the period of the moon change. Measuring year by the month, a month virtually begins from the first day that crescent appears to the former day that the next crescent appears. Because there are about 355 days in a year of the lunar calendar, it needs to set up a leap month every three years, and seven leap months every nineteen years. The year, which has the leap month, is named the leap year. However, which month is the leap month all depends on the situation of the solar terms.

From the year 1912 when China adopted "公历"(gōng lì, the Gregorian calendar), people consider "公历"(the Gregorian calendar) as "阳历"(yáng lì, solar calendric system), and take "农历"(nōng lì, Chinese lunar calender) as "阴历"(yīng lì, the traditional Chinese calendar).