Chinese New Year Dates

To find your Chinese New Year or an upcoming Chinese new year, simply scroll down until you find the year you are interested in. ir example if you are interested in the year 2012, you will find that 2012 is the year of the Water Dragon. In addition to the date that starts the year, there is the year name, and the animal associated with that year. If you wish, you can use the table at the bottom of the page to find a persons Chinese animal sign. They have to be born on or after Chinese New Year to be of that year.

Why Does Chinese New Year Date Change?

The Chinese New Year is based on a lunar year instead of a fixed number of day. Each month the moon come back as a new moon on a different date. On average about 29.53 days. So some month will be 29 and others will be 30 days long. 12 lunar months will take 354.36 days, short of the 365 days in a solar year. To fix this the Chinese added an extra month every third year. In the Chinese calendar, the beginning of the month is marked by the dark moon. The new year starts on a new moon. A full moon occurs in the middle of the month.