mbarrick | Lunar New Year

It bugs me when Chinese New Year is called "Lunar New Year" (as the City of Vancouver is wont to do). Areas with large populations of Chinese ex-pats follow lock-step with the timing as it applies to the Chinese time zone, so calling it "Chinese New Year" is wholly appropriate. In the smattering of countries that officially use the exact mechanism of Chinese calendar outside of China occasionally the day for the beginning of the year is different because local time causes the first new moon after the winter solstice to fall on a different day. More significantly, however, there a whole bunch of lunisolar calendars—Jewish, Islamic, and literally dozens based on Hindu and Buddhist traditions—all of which have different starts, and all of which are marginalised by speaking of the Chinese calendar like it is the only lunar calendar.

IMG 1.)