The Lunar New Year is also known in Putonghua as Yuan Duan, which means beginning and morning. Thus, the new moon in the first lunar month of the year heralds a new cycle, starting at dawn. It is known as Chun Jie or the Spring Festival and brings renewed hope for a bountiful spring, especially after a long or harsh winter.
The Spring Festival is denoted by the lunar calendar, measuring the period between each full moon, usually 29 or 30 days. An additional lunar month is added every two to three years as a kind of leap year, which brings it back in line with the Gregorian or solar calendar.
The solar calendar, which measures the length of time the Earth takes to travel around the sun, has a total of 365.25 days.
The difference between the lunar and solar calendars explains why the Spring Festival fell on February 7 last year, was last Monday this year and will be on February 14 next year.
Most fung shui masters do not use the Spring Festival's date to identify a person's zodiac sign. Rather, the beginning of spring, as denoted on the solar calendar as February 4, is observed as the transition point.
