Why Year of the Snake 2025 won’t follow Lunar New Year’s Eve. It’s ‘the moon’s fault’
The Chinese calendar has no 30th day of the 12th lunar month this year, and it’s to do with the moon’s orbit. So when will people celebrate?
There are a few more weeks to prepare for the next Lunar New Year, which falls on January 29, but there is one thing to bear in mind this year: there is no da nian san shi – the 30th day of the 12th lunar month – to usher in the Year of the Snake celebrations.
In fact, there will be no da nian san shi until February 2, 2030, when the Year of the Rooster makes way for the Year of the Dog.
So why is that?
In the Chinese lunisolar calendar, the first day of each month begins with a new moon, where the moon is least visible to us. A full moon appears around the fifteenth day of each month, and the moon wanes as the month ends.
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As the moon’s orbit around Earth does not follow a perfect circle, the interval from one new moon to the next is not fixed. Instead, a lunar month ranges from around 29.27 days to 29.82 days, with an average length of 29.53 days.
