2022 has passed, and the new year 2023 has begun. According to astronomical science experts, 2023 in the Gregorian calendar is an ordinary year, with 28 days in February and a total of 365 days in the whole year. The upcoming Year of the Rabbit in the lunar calendar is and leap year , with a total of 384 days in the whole year.
Zhao Zhiheng, a member of the Chinese Astronomical Society and director of the Tianjin Astronomical Society, said that the Gregorian calendar and the lunar calendar have different historical origins and calendar regulations. The Gregorian calendar has a leap year every 4 years. Under normal circumstances, any year in the Gregorian calendar that can be divided by 4 is a leap year, and February has 29 days; years that cannot be divided are ordinary years, and February has 28 days. The year 2023 cannot be divided by 4, so it is an ordinary year with a total of 365 days.
The lunar calendar is based on the cycle of the waxing and waning of the moon. A synodic month is one month, about 29.53 days. The whole year is generally 354 days or 355 days, which is 11 days less than the 365 days or 366 days of the Gregorian calendar year (also known as the tropical year , solar year ).
In order to make the length of the lunar year close to that of the Gregorian calendar year, the ancients used the method of adding leap months , that is, adding 7 leap months to the 19 lunar years; the year with leap months has 13 months, and the whole year is generally 384 or 385 days, which is called a leap year. In this way, the 19 lunar years and the 19 Gregorian calendar years are almost equal in length.
As for the specific month in which the leap month is placed, this is related to the " in Qi " of the twenty-four solar terms. The twenty-four solar terms are composed of 12 solar terms and 12 middle qi. The first of the month is called "solar term" and the middle of the month is called "zhong qi". The two are arranged alternately. The rule for adding leap months is that in each month, any month that contains middle energy is considered a normal month, and any month that does not contain middle energy is counted as a leap month in the previous month. ", leap month, February, " in the Lunar Calendar Year of the Rabbit is not a leap month, so it is a leap month in February of the previous month.
The reporter saw on the astronomical calendar that due to the arrangement of a "leap month", the Year of the Rabbit in the lunar calendar has a total of 384 days, starting on January 22, 2023, and ending on February 9, 2024.
The Year of the Rabbit in the lunar calendar has many days, which also makes this lunar year have two calendar phenomena of the beginning of spring , that is, "spring at two ends of the year", also known as " Double Spring Year ". Statistics found that 7 of the 19 lunar years are "double spring years", 7 years are " no spring years ", and the remaining 5 years are normal "single spring years".
"The 'Double Spring Year' and the 'No Spring Year' are just normal calendar phenomena and have nothing to do with good or bad luck." Zhao Zhiheng emphasized.
Source: Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily client
