When is chinese new year? Feb 4 or Feb 14, 2010

[myfs_134517]

Hello Master Lee,

Your chart says that the start of the year of the metal tiger 2010 is february 14. However, I am curious why Lillian Too says it's february 4 and she says that we should make sure all our cures are in place before february 4? What does february 4 signify?

Thanks!

[Cecil Lee]

1. Chinese calendar is based on Lunar calendar.

2.1 Western date: 04 Feb 2010 (Thu)
Lunar Calendar equivalent: 2009, 12th month, 21 day

2.2 Western date:14 Feb 2010 (Sun)
Lunar Calendar equivalent: 2010, 1st month, 1 day

2.3 Western date:15 Feb 2010 (Mon)
Lunar Calendar equivalent: 2010, 1st month, 2 day

3. On Western date of: 04 Feb 2010 (Thu) isbased on Xia (Hsia) calendar; this is the start of spring or Li Chun. Xia calendar is based on seasons especially useful for farmers planting or harvesting their crops.

4.Chinese New Year always falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month. Thus 14 February 2010 is the 1st day that Chinese New Year is widely celebrated.

4.1 Singapore celebrates Chinese New Year on 14 February. But as it is a Sunday, the custom for my country is an extra day: thus 15th and 16th February are holidays.

http://www.calendarlabs.com/online-calendar.php?h=1&c=9
From the link, above offically my country don't recognise 4 February as any holiday.

4.2Hong Kongcelebrates Chinese New Year on 13 February (starting from Eve of Chinese New Year).And as the 1st day of CNYis a Sunday, the custom for Hong Kong is an extra day: thus 15th and 16th February are holidays.

http://www.calendarlabs.com/online-calendar.php?h=1&c=3
Hong Konger's being a prominet user of the Xia (Hsia - seasonal calendar) themselves does not accord 4 February as a holiday). In general Xia calendar is a calendar of convenience as many of the ba zi "produced" in Hong Kong are often inaccurate - especially when one is born in the grey areas.

4.3 Malaysia, celebrates Chinese New Year on 14 Feburay and 15 February, that's all.

http://www.malaysiavacationguide.com/malaysiacalendar2010.html

5. To find out more about what is the Chinese Lunar Calendar vs the Xia (Hsia) calendar, can view this link:-

http://forum.geomancy.net/phpforum/article.php?bid=2&fid=2&mid=23906&new=

[Cecil Lee]

1. Further to what I had mentioned, even the country with one of the largest population and the country where all Chinese come from celebrates Chinese New Year from 14 Febto 16 Feb: TheSpring Festival.

http://www.worldtravelguide.net/country/58/public_holidays/Far-East-Asia/China.html

2. From the above link, the mother of all Chinese culture also uses purely the Lunar calendar and not Xia (Hsia - seasonal) calendar. 4 February 2010 is no where to be found although it is Xia calendar's Start of Spring.

3. In fact, Taiwan, which has the largest pool of Chinese outside of China does not even consider 4th February anywhere in their calendar as a holiday.

Taiwan has the longest celebration of Chinese New Year:-
http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2010&country=71

As this link shows, Taiwan celebrates Chinese New Year from the eve 13th February to 17 February 2010.

4. The morale of the story: the factsspeak for themselves. And 14th Feburary is truly the official recognised date for the 1st day of Chinese NewYear for China, Singapore,Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong. And these countries coverapproximately 80 percent or moreof all Chinese in the world.