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Transcript:
The Chinese Lunar Calendar Explained. The Chinese calendar is split into 60-year cycles, where each year is given two special distinctions: an earthly branch and a celestial stem.
The earthly branches correspond to the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac: the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. There are various origin stories for why these animals were picked, but the most popular involves a race to the Jade Emperor, in which the rat came in first after ensuring the cat didn’t make it to the finish line. (blue shell vid with screeching cat sound) Many things in the calendar are associated with these 12 branches including the years, months, and even the hours of the day. The 10 Celestial stems originated from the belief in ten suns, and this later spawned the five element system, including wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, that changes every two years. So each year can be defined by a particular animal and element (Example year 1987)

The calendar is further divided into 12 lunar months. These lunar months begin on the New (or Dark) Moon and last one complete lunar cycle, either 29 or 30 days. (29.53) However this doesn’t add up to a full year, so occasionally a leap month is added to balance things out. Each New Year begins on the New Moon closest to the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. This always falls between January 21st and February 21st. This ever-changing New Year Day is what causes many Chinese holidays to seemingly move around the calendar.

The upcoming New Year will begin on February 8th (2016) and will mark the 4713th year on the Chinese calendar, ending the year of the wood goat and beginning the year of the fire monkey.

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