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Chinese New Year
- Description:
- Year of the Tiger
Chinese New Year is the most important holiday of the traditional Chinsese holidays. The festival begins on the first day of the Chinese month in the Chinese Calendar and ends on the 15th. For those using the Gregorian calendar in the west, this means that the holiday falls on different dates every year, as the Chinese calendar is lunar based, not solar based.
The lunisolar Chinese calendar determines Chinese New Year dates. In the Gregorian calendar, Chinese New Year falls on different dates each year, a date between January 21 and February 20. In the Chinese calendar, winter solstice must occur in the 11th month, which means that Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice (rarely the third if an intercalary month intervenes).
In traditional Chinese Culture, lichun is a solar term marking the start of spring, which occurs about February 4.
| Animal |
Branch |
New Year dates |
| 鼠 Rat |
子 Zǐ |
February 19, 1996 |
February 7, 2008 |
| 牛 Ox |
丑 Chǒu |
February 7, 1997 |
January 26, 2009 |
| 虎 Tiger |
寅 Yín |
January 28, 1998 |
February 14, 2010 |
| 兔 Rabbit |
卯 Mǎo |
February 16, 1999 |
February 3, 2011 |
| 龍 Dragon |
辰 Chén |
February 5, 2000 |
January 23, 2012 |
| 蛇 Snake |
巳 Sì |
January 24, 2001 |
February 10, 2013 |
| 馬 Horse |
午 Wǔ |
February 12, 2002 |
January 31, 2014 |
| 羊 Sheep |
未 Wèi |
February 1, 2003 |
February 19, 2015 |
| 猴 Monkey |
申 Shēn |
January 22, 2004 |
February 8, 2016 |
| 雞 Rooster |
酉 Yǒu |
February 9, 2005 |
January 28, 2017 |
| 狗 Dog |
戌 Xū |
January 29, 2006 |
February 16, 2018 |
| 豬 Pig |
亥 Hài |
February 18, 2007 |
February 5, 2019 |
The dates for Chinese New Year from 1996 to 2019 (in the Gregorian calendar) are at the left, along with the year's presiding animal zodiac and its earthly branch. The names of the earthly branches have no English counterparts and are not the Chinese translations of the animals. Alongside the 12-year cycle of the animal zodiac there is a 10-year cycle of heavenly stems. Each of the ten heavenly stems is associated with one of the five elements of Chinese astrology, namely: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. The elements are rotated every two years while a yin and yang association alternates every year. The elements are thus distinguished: Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire, etc. These produce a combined cycle that repeats every 60 years. For example, the year of the Yang Fire Rat occurred in 1936 and in 1996, 60 years apart.
Many confuse their Chinese birth-year with their Gregorian birth-year. As the Chinese New Year starts in late January to mid-February, the Chinese year dates from January 1 until that day in the new Gregorian year remain unchanged from the previous Gregorian year. For example, the 1989 year of the snake began on February 6, 1989. The year 1990 is considered by some people to be the year of the horse. However, the 1989 year of the snake officially ended on January 26, 1990. This means that anyone born from January 1 to January 25, 1990 was actually born in the year of the snake rather than the year of the horse. Many online Chinese Sign calculators do not account for the non-alignment of the two calendars, using Gregorian-calendar years rather than official Chinese New Year dates.
Adapted from Wikipedia: Chinese New Year
Valentine's Day
- Description:
- Valentine's Day or Saint Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14. In the Americas and Europe, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery. The holiday is named after two among the numerous Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. The day is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines." Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards. The sending of Valentines was a fashion in nineteenth-century Great Britain, and, in 1847, Esther Howland developed a successful business in her Worcester, Massachusetts home with hand-made Valentine cards based on British models. The popularity of Valentine cards in 19th-century America was a harbinger of the future commercialization of holidays in the United States. The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. The association estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines. From Wikipedia:
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