Chinese Lunar Calendar Converter
Convert dates between the Gregorian and the Chinese lunar calendar (农历), with leap months, zodiac animal, month calendar and festivals, 1900 to 2100.
| Festival | Date | Lunar date |
|---|
| Solar term | Date | Lunar date |
|---|
What it does
The Chinese calendar is lunisolar: each month starts on the day of the new moon and lasts 29 or 30 days, and a 13th month (闰月, leap month) is added about every three years to keep the seasons in place. That is why Chinese New Year falls on a different day each year, between 21 January and 20 February. This converter turns any date from 1900 to 2100 into its lunar date and back, shows the month with the lunar days and lists the traditional festivals of the year. The table was checked day by day against several independent calculations.
How to use it
- Pick a date to see its lunar date, year name (干支) and zodiac animal.
- Or choose a lunar year, month and day, for example a lunar birthday, to find the Gregorian date.
- Browse the month calendar and the festival list; the first day of each lunar month shows the month's name.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Chinese New Year change every year?
It is the second new moon after the winter solstice (occasionally the third), so it moves with the Moon. Twelve lunar months are about 354 days, eleven fewer than a solar year, and the leap months bring it back.
What is a leap month?
A repeated month, written with 闰: 闰六月 comes right after 六月. It is placed where a month has no major solar term, which happens seven times every 19 years. A date in a leap month has no match in an ordinary year, so a lunar birthday in a leap month is usually celebrated in the normal month of the same number.
When does the zodiac year start?
In popular use, on Chinese New Year, which is what this converter shows. Some astrology traditions start it at 立春 (around 4 February) instead, so for births between those two dates the animal can differ.
Is it the same calendar as Vietnam's or Korea's?
Almost. The Vietnamese and Korean calendars follow the same rules but calculate the new moon for their own time zones, so once in a while a month, or even the New Year, starts a day apart. This converter uses the Chinese calendar (Beijing time).
How accurate is it?
The table was compared day by day, from 1900 to 2100, with independent astronomical calculations. The sources disagree only on a few months where the new moon falls within minutes of midnight in Beijing; for those, the converter follows the majority. The best-known case is September 2057.
What are the 24 solar terms?
They divide the year by the position of the Sun, every 15 degrees: 立春 starts spring, 夏至 and 冬至 are the solstices, 清明 is the day for visiting ancestors' graves. Unlike the lunar months they fall on almost the same Gregorian dates every year. The dates here were calculated from NASA's JPL ephemeris in Beijing time.
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Wikipedia — Chinese calendar