#72 ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐...
With "Chinese New Year" descending upon us soon, let us examine whether "Lunar New Year" is an appropriate name for it.
Recently United Nations has added "Lunar New Year" (LNY) to its holiday list for staff, and I have seen some mumblings on Chinese social media that LNY is an erroneous translation of the new year festival celebrated by the Chinese over a few thousand years.
Technically, it is not correct to say that Chinese New Year (CNY) is based on lunar calendar per se because the traditional Chinese calendar is lunisolarย calendar (้ด้ณๅ). We have learnt during our science lesson in school that the no. of days in lunar cycle falls short of solar cycle, and that is why you find that from 2025 to 2029 (see above), the Chinese New Year's eve actually falls on day 29 of the last month of the preceding year, not day 30.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences ไธญๅฝ็งๅญฆ้ข has a good article on the ancient calendar (see above) and I will just do a selective translation here:
โญๆ นๆฎๆ็ธๅ็ผบๅๅ็ๅจๆ๏ผๅณๆๆๆ๏ผๆฅๅถ่ฎข็ๅๆณๅซ้ดๅ
A calendar that is based on the cycle of the moon's phases (i.e. ๆๆๆshuรฒwร ngyuรจ , see below for explanation) is called a lunar calendar.
โญไปฅๅฐ็ๅด็ปๅคช้ณ็่ฟ่ฝฌๅจๆ๏ผๅณๅๅฝๅนด๏ผไธบๆ นๆฎ่ๅถ่ฎข็ๅๆณ๏ผๅซ้ณๅใ
The calendar that is based on the cycle of the earth's orbit around the sun (i.e. ๅๅฝๅนด lit. year of return which means solar year) is called the solar calendar.
โญๆๅฝ็ๅคไปฃๅๆณ๏ผๆๅๅฝๅนดไฝไธบๅนด็ๅไฝ๏ผๆๆๆๆไฝไธบๆ็ๅไฝ๏ผๆฏไธ็งๅ
ผ้กพ้ณๅๅ้ดๅ็้ด้ณๅๅใ
China's ancient calendar, which uses the "year of return" as the unit of the year and the shuรฒwร ngyuรจ as the unit of the month, is a kind of lunisolarย calendar that takes into account both the solar and lunar calendars.
The last part of Pic 2 mentions that the four-section calendar ๅๅๅ that was adopted during the late Spring and Autumn period (abt 770 to 481 BCE) had the solar year measured as 365.25 days, which was very accurate at that time and was more than 160 years earlier than the similar solar cycle measurement adopted by the Greek.
In summary, if you want to focus on the month, then "lunar cycle" is used and that is why the day marked as new year in that cycle is used for celebration. However, a farmer would look at the "solar cycle" given that the inaccuracy of lunar cycle which has approx. 29.5 days as a month and thus would affect when he would plant and harvest the crops for the whole year. Hence we have the 24 solar terms (ไบๅๅ่ๆฐ) which is based on the solar cycle of lunisolarย calendar which gives rise to a different definition of CNY.
Finally, so how should one translate the new year celebrated by the Chinese based on lunisolar calendar given that countries like Koreas, Vietnam etc celebrate it as well as they had adopted the calendar from ancient Chinese and thus one should not use CNY as a generic term? I am inclined to translate it as "Spring Holiday" (to differentiate from Spring Festivalๆฅ่ used by China) as the significance of such celebration is that life begins anew given that the debilitating winter is coming to an end with its opposite, the delightful Spring season, is descending upon us.