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Chinese Calendrics
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Version
6.77
The Chinese Lunar Calendar is a solilunar calendar,
consisting of months corresponding exactly to lunar
cycles and years which stay more-or-less in sync with
seasonal years. The structure of the calendar depends
on the exact times of certain astronomical events,
principally dark moons and winter solstices.
The solar calendar consists of a series of seasonal
years which are divided into 24 "solar terms". The
lunar calendar consists of a series of years which are
divided into 12 or 13 lunar months. A solar year always
begins at the (northern) winter solstice. A lunar month
always begins on the day of a dark moon.
Chinese Calendrics is used to do the following:
To convert between dates in the Chinese solar and lunar
calendars and dates in the Common Era and Julian
calendars.
To calculate the date of New Year's Day in the Chinese
lunar calendar.
To ascertain the Western dates of the starts of all
lunar months in a year in the lunar calendar.
To find leap months in the lunar calendar.
To find the Western dates corresponding to Chinese
anniversaries (e.g., birthdays).
To move forward or backward from a given date (and
time) either by a period such as a month (Western or
Chinese) or by any number of days.
To calculate the phase of the Moon for any time within
a 6000-year period.
To search for the next or previous full moon, dark
moon, lunar quarter, solar term or solstice or equinox
of a certain type.
To search for a solstice or an equinox in combination
with a dark moon or a full moon.
To search for the next or previous day, month or year
with a certain element-animal correspondence (e.g., the
next water-rabbit year or the next fire-chicken day).
To find days for which the element-animal is the same
for day, month and year.
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