Lunar New Year

Lunar New Year marks the beginning of a new year according to lunar calendars or, informally but commonly, to lunisolar calendars. Because a year of twelve lunar months is about 11 days shorter than a solar year (which determines the seasons), lunar cycle-based calendars may have strategies to take this fact into account. Pure lunar calendars have twelve lunar months invariantly and consequently their New Year is not fixed relative to the solar year; no adjustments are made. In contrast, most lunisolar calendars also have twelve lunar months, but every few years, a thirteenth "leap month" is added to resynchronise with the solar year. Consequently, neither type of calendar begins on a fixed date in the international Gregorian calendar.

The determination of the first day of a new lunar year or lunisolar year varies by culture. The event is celebrated by numerous cultures in various ways at different dates. Better-known lunar new year celebrations include those based on the (lunar) Islamic calendar which originated in the Middle East. Lunisolar new year celebrations include those of the (lunisolar) Hebrew calendar from the same region; the (lunisolar) Chinese calendar and its variations from East Asia; and the (lunisolar) Buddhist and Hindu calendars of South and Southeast Asia.

In 2023, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the Spring Festival that coincides with the lunisolar Chinese New Year and is also celebrated in Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and Korea among others, designating Lunar New Year as a UN holiday. Some states in the US, including California and New York, officially celebrate the Lunar New Year as a public holiday in recognition of the lunisolar new year based on the Chinese calendar.

Definition

Meaning

The term "Lunar New Year", as used in English, commonly refers to new year celebrations that are based on lunisolar calendars as well as to those based on true lunar calendars. These new year events are celebrated by billions of people across the world on the first new moon of their calendar. Typically, the new year of a purely lunar calendar is determined by the first new moon after the end of a cycle of twelve lunar months (and ignores the solar cycle). The new year of a lunisolar calendar is typically determined by the first, second or even third new moon after the winter solstice, or after an equinox.

Lunisolar New Year celebrations in East and Central Asia, such as Chinese New Year, are based on a lunisolar calendar. Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice (occasionally the third if an intercalary month intervenes: the deciding factor is that the eleventh month must contain the solstice). Some Lunisolar New Year celebrations, such as in Korea and Vietnam, generally fall on the same day as the Chinese celebration in late January or February, due to being based on the Chinese calendar or a variation of it. However, celebration customs and holiday durations may differ. Lunisolar New Year celebrations of other cultures such as Burmese, Cambodian, Lao, Sri Lankan, and Thai people are based on the Buddhist calendar and occur in mid-April. The Islamic New Year (1 Muharram) is determined by the Islamic calendar (lunar Hijri calendar), a purely lunar calendar. Rosh Hashanah, the new year in the (lunisolar) Hebrew calendar, is based on the September equinox.

History

The earliest recorded use of the term "Chinese New Year" in the English language comes from the 1704 translation of the 1699 Italian book Giro del Mondo by Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri. The term “Lunar New Year” originated in the British Empire and its first recorded use dates back to 1865 in The London and China Telegraph, where it referred to the festival of Māgha Pūjā in Thailand. This was contrasted with the festival of Songkran, which the publication dubbed the “Solar New Year”.

“Lunar New Year” was first used to refer to the Chinese New Year in legal documentation in British Hong Kong in 1968. The holiday was officially called "Chinese New Year" in British Hong Kong until the passing of the Holidays (Amendment) Ordinance 1968 replaced "Chinese New Year" with "Lunar New Year". This law was enacted following the 1967 Hong Kong riots against British colonial rule.

While "Lunisolar New Year" would be a more accurate term for Chinese New Year and other celebrations based on a lunisolar calendar, the name "Lunar New Year" has been promoted by people from some Asian countries, especially in Vietnam and South Korea, leading to a rise in its use. In the United States of America, "Lunar New Year" is strongly associated with Chinese Americans and "Chinese New Year" is commonly used as a translation by people of non-Chinese backgrounds. Chinese New Year is the official name of the celebration and holiday in some countries such as Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia. However, the celebration has officially been known as "Spring Festival" (春节/春節 chūnjié) in China since the founding of the Republic of China in 1912 when the previous name, "Yuandan" (The First Day), was assigned to the first day of the Gregorian calendar. Chinese people outside China refer to it as both "Lunar New Year" as well as "Chinese New Year". Since at least the mid-2010s, there has been criticism in the United States regarding the use of the term "Chinese New Year" in an official capacity, particularly by Korean and Vietnamese people. Some American politicians have avoided using the term "Chinese New Year" in preference for "Lunar New Year".

In 2019, the pro–South Korea internet activist group Voluntary Agency Network of Korea launched a campaign against foreign websites, broadcasting companies, and government organizations that used the expression “Chinese New Year,” in a bid to have them replace it with “Lunar New Year”.

Celebrations by region

Middle East and West Asia

Lunar New Year and Lunisolar New Year celebrations that originated in the Middle East fall on different days:

• The Lunar Hijri calendar used by most of Islam, is a purely lunar calendar comprising 12 lunar months: its year is shorter by about ten or eleven days than the Gregorian calendar year. Consequently Islamic New Year's Day may fall in any season: occasionally there can be two Islamic new years in one Gregorian year (as last happened in 2008). In 2023, the Islamic New Year fell on 7 or 8 July 2024 and is estimated to fall on 25 – 26 June 2025. (The Solar Hijri calendar, used in Iran, is a purely solar calendar. Its New Year's Day is always the day of the March equinox.)
• In Judaism, there are as many as four lunar new year observances. Since the Hebrew calendar is lunisolar, the days always fall in the same season.
  • Nisan is the month of the "barley ripening", or "spring" Aviv/Abib, and the book of Exodus 12:1–2, has God instructing Moses to command the Israelites to fix the new moon, the 1st day, of Nisan at the first, or head moon of the year. The talmud in Rosh Hashanah (tractate) 2a calls this the Rosh HaShana, the new year, for kings and pilgrimages. The climax of this lunar new year is the festival of Passover, which begins on 15 Nisan/Abib (Aviv). It is also the first day of secular new years in Karaite Judaism and Samaritanism.
  • 1 Elul corresponds to the New Year for Animal Tithes in the Rabbinic tradition. Elul is the sixth month, a very late summer/early autumn holiday. It is the date on which the Samaritan calendar advances a year, on the theory that 1 Elul commemorates the creation of the Earth.
  • 1 Tishrei, is called Yom teruah, Day of (trumpet) Blasts in the written Torah, and it falls on the first of the "seventh month". It is translated Feast of Trumpets in most English bible translations. This Day of trumpet Blasts was also called Rosh Hashanah, literally "new year", in Rabbinic Judaism, on the theory that it is Yom haDin, a universal judgment day for all the children of Adam including Jews. Thus the universal, secular new year. It is the date on which the Rabbinic calendar advances a year, on the theory that 1 Tishrei is the day on which the world was born. Rosh Hashanah also inaugurates the ten days known as the High Holy Days/High Holidays or Days of Awe, culminating with Yom Kippur; which is the holiest day of the year in Rabbinic Judaism. For Samaritans and Karaites, Passover remains the holiest day of the year.
  • Tu BiShvat is the New Year for Trees in Rabbinic Judaism. On this day, every tree ages one year. The age of a tree determines whether it is subject to certain tithes. In the modern era, it has become festive holiday with some ecological overtones.

East Asia

Most of East Asia celebrates the Lunisolar New Year as determined by the traditional Chinese calendar. Although commonly referred to in North America as "Lunar New Year" (in preference to "Chinese New Year"), it is actually a Lunisolar New Year. Months in the Chinese calendar track the phases of the moon but the sequence restarts soon after the December solstice. This means that almost every third year has thirteen months rather than twelve. Japan observes the Solar New Year, except for the Ryukyu islands which continues to observe the Lunisolar New Year.