Happy Chinese New Year 2009 !!!

Chinese new year 2009 falls on 26th of January, 2009. The Chinese New Year is celebrated as the symbol of spring’s celebration. In fact in China the Chinese New Year is still called the Spring festival. It is celebrated after the fall harvest and before the spring planting season. The date of the Chinese New Year is always changing and is dependant on the Chinese calendar. Emperor Huangdi in the year 2637 B.C.E invented the Chinese calendar.

The Chinese calendar is a combined solar/lunar calendar and is somewhat similar to the Chinese calendar. For the purpose of determining the dates of the Chinese New Year some astronomical calculations need to be taken care of. Firstly, we need to determine the dates for the new moon. The new moon is the black moon that is when the moon is in conjunction with the sun.
The date of the new moon is taken as the first day of the new month. Secondly those dates are determined when the sun’s longitude is the multiple of 30 degrees. These dates are termed as Principal terms and are used for determining the number of each month.

The Principle term 1 takes place when the sun’s longitude is 330 degrees, the 2nd Principle term occurs when the sun’s longitude is about 0 degrees. The principle term 3 takes place when the sun’s longitude is 30 degrees, the principle term 11 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 270 degrees and the principle term 12 occurs when the sun’s longitude is 300 degrees.

The current 60-year cycle in the Chinese calendar started on 2nd February 1984. Given below are some dates for the past Chinese New Year and the future Chinese New Year.

4698      Dragon    February 5, 2000

4699      Snake      January 24, 2001

4700    Horse      February 12, 2002

4701    Sheep/Ram      February 1, 2003

4702    Monkey      January 22, 2004

4703    Rooster       February 9, 2005

4704    Dog        January 29, 2006

4705    Boar      february 18, 2007

4706    Rat        February 7, 2008

4707   Ox         January 26, 2009

4708    Tiger       February 10, 2010

4709    Hare/Rabbit      February 3, 2011

4710     Dragon       January 23, 2012

4711      Snake        February 10, 2013

4712     Horse       January 31, 2014

4713     Ram/Sheep        February 19, 2015

4714     Monkey         February 9, 2016

4715     Rooster      January 28, 2017

4716     Dog        February 16, 2018

4717     Boar      February 5, 2019

4718      Rat       January 25, 2020