Foundations

The Chinese calendar cuts the solar year into 24 equal slices called jieqi (节气, solar terms). Each marks the moment the Sun reaches a fixed point on the ecliptic — every 15 degrees of longitude — so the same term falls on almost the same Gregorian date every year. This page lists all 24 terms with their exact 2026 dates and times (computed to the minute), then explains how the system is defined and what each term marks in the agricultural and seasonal year.

Chinese calendar dates behave differently from Gregorian ones in three visible ways: months don’t have a fixed length, Chinese New Year lands on a different Gregorian date every year, and every two or three years a whole extra month appears. None of this is arbitrary. It follows a precise rule for keeping a lunisolar calendar — one that tracks the Moon and the Sun at the same time — from drifting away from the seasons.