Or: “Timekeeping is a fuck and this shit is convoluted”
Preface: There are 3 types of calendars. Solar (like the Gregorian calendar), Lunar (like the Islamic calendar) and Lunisolar (like the Hebrew calendar).
“The Korean lunisolar calendar, like most other East Asian calendars such as those of Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, among others, are all derived from historical variants of Chinese ones such as the Shixian calendar of the Ming dynasty.”
I’m not a die hard about calling it “Chinese New Year” despite TET in Vietnam and Seollal in Korea both being derived from the Chinese calendar, among others. They have adapted their own customs and traditions to it. Calling the celebration “Chinese New Year” is not the most accurate. I am of a mind to call it what matters to you, you don’t have to translate it. Ramadan is Ramadan, no need to translate it to “Scorching Heat”, Hanukkah is Hanukkah, no need to translate it to “Dedication”.
However, to call it “Lunar New Year” implies it’s the definitive lunar calendar, which erases other civilizations’ timekeeping traditions. There are multiple lunar calendars with their own lunar new years such as Ugadi in India, Hijri in Muslim countries and the Tamil calendar as well.
Not to mention the Chinese calendar is actually lunisolar and not solely lunar, incorporating both solar and lunar timekeeping, so “Lunar New Year” is half accurate at best. Switching to calling it “Lunisolar New Year” also runs into similar issues, the Thai calendar is lunisolar (but Songkran/Thai New Year is in April) as is the Hebrew calendar (Rosh Hashanah/Hebrew New Year is in Sept-Oct)
In China, using 农历/agricultural calendar (due to its historical significance in relation to farming) or 旧历/old calendar to refer to the Chinese calendar are the most accurate whereas 阴历/lunar calendar and 阳历/solar calendar being common vernacular despite being technically incorrect.
Just call it 春节/Spring Festival or 新年/New Year, it’s the most common terms (元旦 is the most common way of referring to the Gregorian new year in China itself.) It really doesn’t matter that much to us. The term “Chinese New Year” is rarely used in China and was probably a term used by Chinese immigrants for the benefit of Westerners.
Tl;Dr “Lunar New Year” is well meaning but incorrect, erases other lunar calenders and recently has been used maliciously.
Ok I’m Jewish but use the American calendar. What the fuck is lunisolar!
A lunisolar calendar will have aspects of both. While the time of year will be based on solar events like it’s position in the sky, equinoxes solstices and such, certain holidays are based on cycles of the moon.
This means a year is still roughly 365 days (with some years having an extra month to remain in sync)
A purely lunar calendar would be the Islamic calendar, a year being defined as 354 days, so it’s currently in winter (in the northern hemisphere) but will take place 11 days earlier every year until it syncs up again in 33 years.
The date of Easter was based on lunisolar timekeeping as it traditionally takes place on the first full moon after the spring equinox (in the northern hemisphere) which is why it’s date varies (unlike most other Christian feasts, which are based purely on solar dates).
Spring Festival, likewise, will always be between Jan 20th and Feb 21st every solar year unlike the Islamic new year which is 11 days earlier every single solar year.
Thank you for the explanation! My mom would always be telling me dates of yartzheit (prayers for the dead) but it would always change and I can’t keep up. But on the English calendar my dad died on the same day…. Year after year