2012 Chinese New Year Day is
on January 23, 2012
the Astrological Year of Dragon begins on February 4, 2012Credits: http://www.chinapage.com/newyear.html http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/2012.htm  | ||
The
first day of the 2012 Chinese New Year is on January 23, 2012
in China's time zone. This day is a new moon day, and is the first day of
the
first Chinese lunar month
in the Chinese Lunar Calendar system. The exact new moon time is at 15:40 on
23-Jan-12 in China's time zone.The Year 2012 is the 4709th Chinese year. The Chinese believe that the first king of China was the Yellow King (he was not the first emperor of China). The Yellow King became king in 2697 B.C., therefore China will enter the 4709th year on January 23, 2012. Also, the Chinese Year uses the cycle of 60 Stem-Branch counting systems and the Black Water Dragon is the 28th Stem-Branch in the cycle. Since (60 *78) + 29 = 4709, therefore 2012 is the Water Dragon year, which is the 4709th Chinese Year.
Some web sites say the year 2012 is the 4710th Chinese year. If you cannot find the explanation as to why, here is a possible answer for you. The Yellow King's inauguration was held in the spring of 2697 B.C. But the day that was used as the first day of the year was the winter solstice, which was around December 23rd, 2698 B.C. Today's January 1st meant nothing to the Yellow King. If we count that extra eight days in 2698 B.C., then year 2012 is the 4710th Chinese year.
2012 is the year of Dragon. Some people say 2012 is a Black Dragon or Water Dragon year. This is because the Stem-Branch Calendar is connected to the Five Element theory. Chinese calendars used the Stem-Branch system to count the days, months and years. There are 10 Stems and 12 Branches in this system. Stems are named by the Yin-Yang and Five Elements (Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth). The Stem sequence order is
Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire, Yang Earth, Yin Earth, Yang Metal, Yin
Metal, Yang Water and Yin Water. Branches use animal names. The Branch sequence order is
Rat, Cow, Tiger, Dragon, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Chicken, Dog and
Pig. Stem and Branch are used together to form a cycle of 60 counting systems
which begin with 
Wooden
Rat and end with
Water
Pig. You can see the entire sequence from the
Chinese
New Year's page. From 1924 to 1983 is a complete cycle. Year 2012 is Male
Water Dragon 
the
29th of the Stem-Branch in the system. Because Water is connected to Black in the
Five-Element system, Year 2012 is also called the
Black Dragon year.
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