Monday 26 February 2024

Lunar New Year

I was intrigued by this card. I was wondering how you would decide when to start a year in a lunar calendar. If you follow a strictly lunar calendar, then the months don't tie in with the solar calendar we use. So Ramadan occurs in different western seasons as the years go by. The answer to this Lunar New Year is that it is not truly lunar. It is called a lunisolar calendar where a "leap month" is put in every now and then to make the same festivals come up at the same point relative to the sun every year. This is called intercalation.