Yoda Posted January 5, 2009 So it's my understanding that the Chinese New Year is on Monday Jan 26. We want to have a party but Mondays don't tend to draw much of a crowd. Is it commonly acceptable to wait until Fri the 30th? Also, what does one do for CNY parties anyways? We usually do dumplings, Chinese candy, do a dragon parade with the young kids dressing up as the dragon, etc. I'm curious for more ideas, thanks! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rodgerj Posted January 5, 2009 (edited) Edited March 22, 2010 by rodgerj Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yoda Posted January 5, 2009 A very fun how-to, thanks!! If this is for a householder... can you imagine how busy Mak Tin Si's schedule is around then??? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mal Posted January 6, 2009 Wow, thats a LOT of rules Here most of the Chinese restaurants "celebrate" for a few days. On the CNY and also whatever days "inbetween" that gets them to their big trading days of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And they have fireworks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
purplerose Posted January 6, 2009 So it's my understanding that the Chinese New Year is on Monday Jan 26. Eh... No offense... but the January 26th is the Chinese New Year on the lunar calendar, which is used only by "laymen". In Chinese Astrology (Four Pillars of Destiny, for instance) we use the solar calendar. So the REAL Chinese New Year is on February 4th this year (Ji Chou / 己丑 - the Earth Ox). purplerose Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yoda Posted January 6, 2009 Purplerose, Welcome to taobums!! My calendar says CNY is Jan 26th, but I don't particularly care what day it is. Are there contending schools of thought out there or is my calendar misprinted? If it's solar, why not pick closer to Dec 21st? Mak Tin Si calls Jan 26 the "1st day" of CNY and says that there are 15 days all in all. I wonder what that's about. Your pal, Yoda Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Taomeow Posted January 6, 2009 (edited) Eh... No offense... but the January 26th is the Chinese New Year on the lunar calendar, which is used only by "laymen". In Chinese Astrology (Four Pillars of Destiny, for instance) we use the solar calendar. So the REAL Chinese New Year is on February 4th this year (Ji Chou / 己丑 - the Earth Ox). purplerose Um... beg to differ. Four Pillars uses the solilunar calendar, not the solar one. The "real" Chinese new year is solilunar and is calculated accordingly. I follow the Chinese calendar all year round using a taoist almanac; these are solilunar too. How a solilunar calendar is created is a matter of a separate investigation, but that's what the "real" Chinese calendar is -- and I'm not aware of a special Chinese calendar "for laymen" as opposed to "for astrologers" -- Chinese astrologers use the Chinese calendar, solilunar and "real" at that; so do taoists; and "laymen" may or may not use it if they like, but there's no separate "Chinese calendar for laymen" in existence. Here's the solilunar Chinese New Year table for years past and years to come: 2000 February 5 Dragon 2001 January 24 Snake 2002 February 12 Horse 2003 February 1 Sheep 2004 January 22 Monkey 2005 February 9 Rooster 2006 January 29 Dog 2007 February 18 Pig 2008 February 7 Rat 2009 January 26 Ox 2010 February 14 Tiger 2011 February 3 Rabbit 2012 January 23 Dragon 2013 February 10 Snake 2014 January 31 Horse 2015 February 19 Sheep 2016 February 8 Monkey 2017 January 28 Rooster 2018 February 16 Dog 2019 February 5 Pig Edited January 6, 2009 by Taomeow Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
purplerose Posted January 6, 2009 Um... beg to differ. Four Pillars uses the solilunar calendar, not the solar one. The "real" Chinese new year is solilunar and is calculated accordingly. I follow the Chinese calendar all year round using a taoist almanac; these are solilunar too. How a solilunar calendar is created is a matter of a separate investigation, but that's what the "real" Chinese calendar is -- and I'm not aware of a special Chinese calendar "for laymen" as opposed to "for astrologers" -- Chinese astrologers use the Chinese calendar, solilunar and "real" at that; so do taoists; and "laymen" may or may not use it if they like, but there's no separate "Chinese calendar for laymen" in existence. The 'solilunar' calendar you're talking about, the 'Xia calendar' or the '10.000 year calendar' shows both the solar calendar and the lunar calendar. But each calendar should be used according to its purpose. My fault, I didn't mean a special calendar 'for laymen' but that most of the Chinese people use the lunar one. Regarding the beginning of the year, the best argument we can find in this quote from Ting-Foon Chik, Chinese Astrologer and Feng Shui Master: The Lunar New Year is starts with the second new moon after the Winter Solstice which is the nearest new moon to the beginning of spring on the 4th February. In the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, and it is the turnaround point, for after the winter solstice, known as 'Dong Zhi', the daylight hours increase and the hours of darkness diminish. Some Chinese Astrologers advocate the winter solstice marks the beginning of the Chinese Year, since it is the most yin moment and hence the start of the yang moment. However, this argument is flawed because in the southern hemisphere, this is not true! A year is defined as the time for the earth to complete a revolution around the sun, therefore we can define the beginning of the year as the moment the Sun is first found in the East where it rises everyday. This is at the start of Tiger month, known as 'Li Chun', the beginning of Spring, which is usually on the 4th February each year. This start of the year is consistent for the northern and southern hemispheres. purplerose Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gendao Posted January 6, 2009 Elders give the kiddos "hong bao" (red packets) full of cash. Firecrackers (yang energy) are set off to clear out yin entities. People eat "nian gao" (sticky rice cakes). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Taomeow Posted January 7, 2009 (edited) The 'solilunar' calendar you're talking about, the 'Xia calendar' or the '10.000 year calendar' shows both the solar calendar and the lunar calendar. But each calendar should be used according to its purpose. My fault, I didn't mean a special calendar 'for laymen' but that most of the Chinese people use the lunar one. Regarding the beginning of the year, the best argument we can find in this quote from Ting-Foon Chik, Chinese Astrologer and Feng Shui Master: The Lunar New Year is starts with the second new moon after the Winter Solstice which is the nearest new moon to the beginning of spring on the 4th February. In the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, and it is the turnaround point, for after the winter solstice, known as 'Dong Zhi', the daylight hours increase and the hours of darkness diminish. Some Chinese Astrologers advocate the winter solstice marks the beginning of the Chinese Year, since it is the most yin moment and hence the start of the yang moment. However, this argument is flawed because in the southern hemisphere, this is not true! A year is defined as the time for the earth to complete a revolution around the sun, therefore we can define the beginning of the year as the moment the Sun is first found in the East where it rises everyday. This is at the start of Tiger month, known as 'Li Chun', the beginning of Spring, which is usually on the 4th February each year. This start of the year is consistent for the northern and southern hemispheres. purplerose Thanks for the link. Not impressed, sorry... from the looks of it, we're dealing with some simplified astrology method that isn't traditional. Calculations according to the real solilunar date (and I don't mean two different calendars, solar and lunar, I mean the structure of the Chinese calendar with leap months built in -- which IS solilunar, but don't take my word for it, do some research... I'm quite rusty on the subject, studied it years and years ago and forgot quite a bit of the how-to that went into the making of the Chinese calendar, but remember the bottom line well: use it. Don't doubt it. ) -- -- as I was saying, real astrological calculations are laborious, so the master you cite, for reasons best known to herself but in all likelihood commercial, chooses to use a fixed date for each new year and ignore the lunar energy altogether. Makes it easier on the astrologer, I bet... By the way, did I miss it or does she indeed never mention which school of FS she's talking about? There's so much "generic feng shui" out there, and it's so funky sometimes... I mean, most of the time... Edited January 7, 2009 by Taomeow Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mYTHmAKER Posted January 7, 2009 Chinese year of the Ox Lunar year 4707 January 26th 2009 According to Jim Maynard's Celestial Guide 2009 The guide happens to be prrinted in China so it must be right Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
