Chinese Lunar Month System

∟Chinese Lunar Month System

This section describes how months are counted in Chinese calendar.

In Chinese calendar, months are lunar months. This means the first day of each month beginning at midnight is the day of the astronomical new moon.

Because new Moon happens every 29.53 days, the number of days in a month is changing between 29 days and 30 days.

In order to synchronize with the tropical year, an extra month, leap month, will be inserted. The exact rule of how the leap month should be inserted is very complex. You can read more details on my other book "Herong's Notes on Chinese Calendar"

Chinese lunar months are named as:

1st month    正月 zhengyue
2nd month    二月 eryue
3rd month    三月 sanyue
4th month    四月 siyue
5th month    五月 wuyue
6th month    六月 liuyue
7th month    七月 qiyue
8th month    八月 bayue
9th month    九月 jiuque
10th month   十月 shiyue 
11th month   冬月 dongyue
12th month   腊月 nayue