Perpetual Chinese Calendar

General Information

The Chinese calendar comprises 60-year cycles called the Sexagenary Cycle. Each year of the cycle is given a name and is made up of two parts - the Celestial Stem and the Earthly Branch. There are 10 Celestial Stems and 12 Earthly Branches:-

		The Chinese calendar follows the sequence of the Earthly Branch (right column):- Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Fowl, Dog and lastly, Pig.

The 10 Celestial stems (Tian Gan 天干) comprises the five basic elements - Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. It has a positive and negative component much like yin and yang.

According to folklore, when the Chinese goddess Kuan Yin was about to depart the Earth for the Heavens, she (see below) summoned all the animals in the kingdom to bid them farewell. However, only 12 animals came. As a mark of appreciation, 12 years are named according to the order of arrival of the animals. These 12 years are referred to as the Earthly Branches (Di Zhi 地支). (Kuan Yin actually a man and not a woman as it is generally believed.) 

Years in the Sexagenary cycle are assigned names by pairing the Celestial Stem and Earthly Branch. For example, in the 1^st year of a 60-year Sexagenary Cycle, the year is given the name Jia-Zi or Wood[+]Rat. The 2^nd year is given the name of Yi-Chou, and so on. When we run out of stems, we start from the beginning again, such as Jia-Xu follows Gui-You. The Earthly Branch is also reused in a similar manner.

In Chinese culture, a person reaching 60 years of age is considered an auspicious day as he would have experienced a full 60-year cycle and therefore considered wise.

The earliest use of the Sexagenary Cycle appears to be in the year 2637 B.C. The year 2001 falls in the 78^th cycle which began in the year 1984. The year 2001 is Xin-Si  or the year of the Metal[-]Snake. It is the 18^th year of the 78^th cycle. The 78^th cycle ends in the year 2043 Gui-Hai or Water[-]Pig.

Each year of the Chinese calendar comprises 12 lunar months (13 in the case of an intercalary / embolistic year or lunar leap year). Unlike the Gregorian calendar (the calendar English speaking countries used in daily life) the lunar leap year is not determined precisely by a formula, but by particular positions of the Sun. Thus, in the Chinese calendar, a lunar leap year occurs once every 2 or 3 years.