Chinese Culture Today's Date in Chinese
Gregorian Date
The Gregorian date is now the universal standard for calendars all over the world, including China, where it called the Common Calendar or ε ¬ζ/ε ¬ε. In the US, people prefer to use a Month/Day/Year sequence and some European countries prefer a Day/Month/Year sequence. In the Chinese language, however, there is always a major to minor preferences when enumerating items. For instance, names are always in surname, given name order; addresses are in country, province, city, street order. Accordingly, dates are given in year, month, day sequence. Months are simply named based on their sequence number.
September 7, 2025
2025εΉ΄ 9ζ 7ζ₯
Lunar Calendar
Although the Gregorian calendar is used for most purposes, most Chinese people still use the traditional lunar calendar for marking traditional holidays such as the Chinese New Year, the Lantern Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival. It is also used for fortune-telling, finding auspitious dates for getting married, starting a business, etc.
Although it is commonly referred to as the lunar calendar, in reality it is lunisolar, i.e. it is based on both the position of moon and the sun (and even a few planets and stars for good measure). Being a lunar calendar means that each months always starts on a new moon while the full moon is always in the middle of the month. The solar aspect meant that a parallel system based on the sun's position was used to divide each year into 24 mini-seasons, known as solar terms. These solar terms governed the timing of leap months that were added to bring the calendar back in synchronization with the position of the earth versus the sun. Otherwise, the calendar would not have been useful for agricultural planning, arguably, its most important use for an agrarian society. In fact, the traditional lunar calendar is known as the Agricultural Calendar or θΎ²ζ/εε. Since the moon takes 29.5 days to complete a rotation around the earth, a month in the lunar calendar alternates between 29 and 30 days, adding up to a year of 354 days. Since this is way shorter than the 365 days in the solar year, a leap month was added about every three years to compensate.
In imperial China, years were generally counted relative to the reigning emperor. In the modern Chinese lunar calendar, usually the same year as Gregorian calendar is used, offset by the fact that the lunar new year doesn't start until about the middle of February. The first month of the year is called ζ£ζ, the eleventh month ε¬ζ, and the twelfth month θζ. All other months are simply named based on their sequence number, such as δΊζ, δΈζ, etc.
September 7, 2025
2025εΉ΄ δΈζ εε
Epochal Year
But what about those years numbering above 4,000 that are usually seen around Chinese New Year? Numbering all years relative to the same start date is called an epochal year. This is a relatively new development because as mentioned earlier, years were traditionally relative to the reigning emperor. This, of course, makes it difficult to compared two events based on different calendars. Various possible starting points have been proposed, the most widely accepted one being the start of the reign of the Yellow Emperor, which occurred on 2698 BCE.
September 7, 2025
4723εΉ΄ δΈζ εε
Sexagenary Cycle
Overlayed on top of the lunar calendar, there was also a repeating cycle lasting sixty years. This sexagenary cycle was known as the Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branches (steam and branches or εΉ²ζ―). The name of each term was formed from the combination of names of ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches.The ten heavenly stems are η², δΉ, δΈ, δΈ, ζ, ε·±, εΊ, θΎ, 壬, and ηΈ.
The twelve earthly branches are ε, δΈ, ε― , ε―, θΎ°, ε·³, ε, ζͺ, η³, ι , ζ, and δΊ₯, each of which is also associated with a zodiac animal.
The names of each term is done by taking a character from the stems and a character from the branches in a rather idiosyncratic manner that ends up using only half of the available combinations. As an example, the year 2024 is ηΈε―. In addition to years, this system was applied to months, days, and even hours. With exactly eight characters, it was then possible to identify anyone's year, month, day, and hour of birth. This is known as the ε «ε bazi (literally "eight chracters" but usually grandiosely translated as the Four Pillars of Destiny), which is used even today to find compatibility of potential marriage partners.