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Lunar New Year

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Lunar New Year is the first day of a secular, sacred, or other guise whose months are coordinated by the cycles of the moon. The whole year may account to a purely lunar calendar, which is not coordinated to a solar calendar (and, thus, may progress or retrogress through the solar year by comparison to it, depending on whether the lunar calendar has more or fewer than 13 months); or the year may account to a lunisolar calendar, whose months coordinate to the cycles of the moon but whose length is periodically adjusted to keep it relatively in sync with the solar year - typically by adding an intercalary month, when needed.

Celebrations

The following East Asian Lunar New Year celebrations are, or were historically, based on the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar (occurring in late January or early February).

These Southeast Asian and South Asian traditional Lunar New Year celebrations are, or were historically observed according to the local lunar calendars. They are all influenced by Indian (Indic) tradition: (occurring in late March or April)

  • Burmese New Year (Thingyan): Lunisolar new year falls in April; similar to Cambodian, Lao, Sri Lankan, Nepali, Bengali and Thai new years
  • Cambodian New Year (Chaul Chnam Thmey), similar to Burmese, Lao, Sri Lankan, Nepali, Odia, Bengali and Thai
  • Lao New Year, similar to Burmese, Cambodian, Sri Lankan, Nepali, Bengali, Odia and Thai
  • Nepali New Year, similar to Burmese, Cambodian, Sri Lankan, Bengali, Odia, Thai and Lao
  • Odia New Year (Pana Sankranti), similar to Burmese, Cambodian, Sri Lankan, Nepali, Bengali, Thai and Lao
  • Sinhala and Tamil New Year, similar to Burmese, Cambodian, Lao, Nepali, Bengali, Odia and Thai
  • Thai New Year (Songkran), similar to Burmese, Cambodian, Lao, Sri Lankan, Bengali, Odia and Nepali
  • Pohela Boishakh (Bengali New Year), similar to Burmese, Cambodian, Lao, Sri Lankan, Odia and Nepali
  • Ugadi and Gudi Padwa, Lunisolar new year's day celebrated by the Deccan people of India
  • Meitei Cheiraoba, Lunisolar new year's day celebrated by Meitei people
  • Kashmiri New Year (Navreh), Lunisolar new year's day celebrated by Kashmiri Pandits

These Lunar New Year celebrations that originated in Western Asia fall on other days:

  • Islamic New Year or Muslim New Year is not lunisolar but follows a purely lunar calendar of 12 months that retrogresses through the Gregorian and Julian calendar years. The day of Muslim New Year may thus fall in any season on the calendar.
  • In Jewish (Rabbinical and Karaite) and Samaritan religious and secular traditions, there are several holy days and festivals that are lunar new year observances. Each tradition uses a slightly different version of the Hebrew Calendar but they are all lunisolar, so the days always fall in the same season.
    • Rosh Hashanah in the Rabbinic Jewish tradition begins with the new moon of the month of Tishrei and inaugurates a new calendar year. Karaite Jews and Samaritans observe 1 Tishrei as the holiday Yom Teruah (meaning "Day of Noise," whereas Rosh Hashanah means "Head of the Year"). It is an autumn holy day.
    • 1 Nissan/Abib is the first day of the new year in Karaite tradition and begins a fifteen day celebration culminating in the Passover holiday. Rabbinic Judaism calls this the New Year for Kings and similarly numbers Nissan as the first month. Nissan/Abib begins in the spring.
    • 1 Elul is the date on which the Samaritan calendar advances. It corresponds to the New Year for Animal Tithes in the Rabbinic tradition. This is a very late summer/early autumn holiday.
  • In Christian tradition, three holy days are based on the lunar year, all relative to the calculation of the Passover.
    • Easter is the first Sunday after Passover.
    • Ash Wednesday is 46 days before Easter. For many Christians, the period of time between Ash Wednesday and Easter is a time of fasting known as Lent.
    • Pentecost is 50 days after Easter which also corresponds with the Jewish feast day Feast of Weeks.

See also

References

  1. ^ DuBois, Jill (2004). Korea. Vol. Volume 7 of Cultures of the world (illustrated, revised ed.). Marshall Cavendish. p. 114. ISBN 978-0761417866. Retrieved 2015-02-19. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
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