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It is the Chinese calendar for January, 2010 on the right.

On the top:

日 (ri4) means Sunday

一：Monday

二:  Tuesday

三: Wednesday

四: Thursday

五: Friday

六: Saturday

1 to 31 are the days of Gregorian calendar, which is also official calendar in China (all social schedules for air lines, TV shows, radio, train schedules are using Gregorian calendar.) That is why we Chinese call it 公历(公曆) gong1 li4, meaning “Public Calendar”.  The Chinese call lunar calendar  农历（農曆）nong2 li4, meaning “agricultural calendar”.

From this calendar, you can see “十七”( shi2 qi1 = 17) under January 1, which was Friday ( it is under 五 of the top line). It means the 17th day of 11th months of the lunar calendar (nong2 li4). How do I know it is the 11th months? Because I see “十二月” (shi2 er2 yue4= 12th month) under January 15, which is also Friday.

Because we know that there are 30 days in every lunar month, we guess that the 12th lunar month will end in Feb.

Ah, yes! Looking the calendar of Feb. 2010, we know that the lunar 12th month, the last month of the year ends on 13th of February, 2010, which a a big day for Chinese: 大年三十 (literately “big year 30″, that is the New Year’s Eve for Chinese! ) and midnight means the beginning of the lunar New Year – the Year of Tiger when the Year of Ox ends.)

送牛迎虎 song4 niu2 ying2 hu3 (sending away the Ox and receiving the Tiger.)

Let’s continue looking at Jan, 2010: on the 5th of January, we see “小寒”(xiao3 han2 = little or small  or minor cold) under it.  Xiaohan ( refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaohan ) is the 23rd of the 24 solar terms within a year ). It usually begins around January 5 and ends around January 20.  On January 20th, 2010, we can see “大寒” (da4 han2 = big or major cold ) under it.  It usually begins around January 20 and ends around February 4.  It does remind me it is the coldest day of the year in China without considering special change in the climate.

On 14th February,  we see “正月”  (zheng1 yue4 =  first month of the year .  “正” here with the 1st tone is very special because in the old old days, dated back to China’s first Emperor 嬴政 ying1 zheng4, when people had to avoid mentioning the name of the Emperor so they pronounced the “正” in first tone instead of the 4th tone. ). Anyway, it is the first day of the lunar year, we now call it “正月初一”.

We call the 1st to 10th day of the month  “初”  （chu1 = initial）一、 二、三 、  …  all the way to 初十 ， then we continue to count as 十一( eleventh)、十二、  all the way to 三十 （ thirtieth ）. Because we have to mark the beginning of the month with the name of the month such as “十二月” or “正月”, so we omit “初一”(chu1 yi1) for the space.

Does this short article get you interested in Chinese lunar calendar? Here’s the Chinese lunar calendar for 2010:
2010 Chinese Calendar (1091)(times have been downloaded.)

June 1st, International Children’s Day is a big day for Children in Mainland China and these countries: Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Germany, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Slovakia and many other “advanced” countries unlike the following countries/regions:

North Korea: June 2nd South Korea and Japan: May 5th., Read the rest of this entry »

“The Qingming Festival (traditional Chinese: 清明節; simplified Chinese: 清明节; pinyin: Qīngmíngjié, or Ching Ming Festival in Hong Kong, Vietnamese language: Tết Thanh Minh), meaning Clear and Bright Festival, is a traditional Chinese festival on the 104th day after the winter solstice (or the 15th day from the Spring Equinox), usually occurring around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar (see Chinese calendar). Every leap year, Qing Ming is on April 5th.”

For 2003, 2007, 2011, Qingming is on April 5th (leap year every four years), but for 2001-2002, 2004-2006,2008-2010, it falls on April 4th. So this year 2009, we will have Qingming Festival on April 4th, the same for next year 2010.

“Qingming is a statutory public holiday in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. It has long been a public holiday in the latter three jurisdictions, but became a public holiday in mainland China in 2008 for the first time since 1949.”

Qingming was frequently mentioned in Chinese literature. Among these, the most famous one is probably Du Mu’s poem (simply titled “Qingming”):

清明

杜牧

(source from wikipedia)

Other English names of this festival: Tomb-sweeping Day (China mainland translation); Ching Ming (official in Hong Kong); Pure Brightness

(For other Chinese festivals and holidays, check out the Chinese Lunar Calender for 2009 )

清明

【唐】杜牧
清明时节雨纷纷，路上行人欲断魂。
借问酒家何处有？牧童遥指杏花村。
作者简介：杜牧（公元803－约852年）唐代诗人。

You can play or down the mp3 for this famous Tang peom in Cantonese and Mandarin here:

 

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