If you're in the mood for a minor headache today, I suggest you do a quick study of the lunar calendar and try to explain it to a friend. Even the article I read in Wikipedia, which usually clears things right up for me, left me scratching my head. The reason I mention this because there are two major groups in the world today who still use the lunar calendar - the Chinese and the Muslims - and both of these groups represent large portions of Xinjiang's population. Over the next two months each of these groups will be celebrating a holiday determined on the lunar calendar.Chinese New Year:
Although it is, without a doubt, the largest and most popular Chinese holiday, it's such a pain to figure out when it is exactly. If you live in China or have Chinese friends you should have some fun and ask them when the Chinese New Year is this year to see if they can tell you the date. Odds are they might be able to tell you a general time ("Uh...sometime towards the end of January, I think?"), but rarely the exact date.
Why is this so difficult? While most Chinese are now beginning to live and work under the Gregorian calendar like the rest of the world, they continue to celebrate New Year based on their own lunar calendar. This means that while the Chinese New Year is always somewhere in January or February, it's never the same day on consecutive years. Very few people I know here in China keep up with the lunar date - check that, NOBODY I know here keeps up with the lunar calendar - so everyone waits for the government or the news organizations to tell them when to celebrate New Year's. It's quite frustrating to figure out when the school year ends because it's never the same each year.
Muslim Corban Festival (aka Eid al-Adha):
The entire reason I'm talking about this today is because this Tuesday we will be celebrating the Corban Festival here in Xinjiang. This festival is a public holiday for the entire province, meaning that while everybody else in China will be working Tuesday, all of us over here have the day off. If you happen to be Muslim, you get Wednesday and Thursday off, too. There's a lot to explain about the celebration of this holiday here in Xinjiang, but I'm going to hold off on that until this Tuesday when we get a little better grasp of it ourselves.
If you ask a Muslim, they might tell you that their holidays are on the same day every year - and according to the Islamic calendar (also a lunar calendar) they are. But the difference between the Islamic and Gregorian calendar means that for those of us who aren't Muslims, all the Muslim holidays magically move about 11 days earlier each year. If your math isn't too rusty you can easily calculate that this means that any given Muslim holiday makes its way through each of the 4 seasons every 33 years. Back in 2000 this holiday we're celebrating on Tuesday was celebrated on March 16th. Interesting, huh?
At Least the Rest of Us aren't Crazy, Right?
All of this kind of makes my head spin, to be honest. I'm a bit happy to know that next year all of my holidays will be easy to figure out. Thanksgiving will still fall on the 4th Thursday in November, Christmas will still be on December 25th, the 4th of July will be on, well, you know, and Easter will be on...
...oh, shoot. I guess we are crazy after all.
9 Comments:
Chinese Lunar Calendar is still popular in rural area, for farming and festivals.
Mid-Autumn Festival is August 15th(Chinese Lunar Calendar). The moon is the brightest and roundest on this day of every year. It's amazing that Chinese can predict that long long ago.
to make matters worse, the muslim holiday is actually today by most accounts. it's not just that the month starts on the first sliver of light on the moon after the new moon, but the first time it's actually visible from earth. so if it's overcast where you are, it might delay the start of the new month. the jews do it with math, which makes more sense. the muslims aren't supposed to.
and actually the islamic calendar isn't much of a problem. just just have a little extra anticipation at the start of improtant months like ramadan, but that's alright. the 11 days thing does become more visible when ramadan moves into summer when the days are much longer and thus so is the fasting.
i'd love to see some photos of the celebrations there in xinjiang. here in jiangsu it's completely unnoticeable unless you happen to be in the mosque.
I didn't know that about the Muslim calendar.
This year, Spring Festival is mid-January (I think the 19th), which is much earlier than last year (though my school break is roughly the same).
I must admit, using the Gregorian, Chinese, and Jewish calendars all in one year can get confusing...but I do get to celebrate the New Year three times.
Thanks for all the input everyone! I don't claim to be an expert on lunar calendars and I'm interested to continue learning.
Kellen - I didn't know that this Muslim festival was celebrated on different days depending on the moon. I guess that uncertainty is why we're moving away from the lunar calendar nowadays.
Matthew - Jews celebrate a different New Year? You better be stocking up on some firecrackers, man.
Yeah, mucho confusing. I can't remember either of my GFs birthdays.
Yeah, the Jewish new year is usually in September. Then I get a few months off before Dec. 31. And just as the hangover diminishes, I have to celebrate Spring Festival--with ample notice from my wife. And to top that off, I have two anniversaries to remember. Good thing I'm organized enough to write these all down on a calendar. Now where did I put it?
Next Chinese New Year is 26 Jan 2009.
Subsequent Chinese New Years are
14 February 2010
3 February 2011
23 January 2012
10 February 2013
31 January 2014
19 February 2015
8 february 2016
28 January 2017
16 February 2018
5 February 2019
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