In 2024, the year of the lunar calendar will usher in the year of Jiachen, which will present a unique landscape. It is worth noting that according to the calculation rules of the lunar calendar, there will be no leap month in this year, and the traditional 12 months will be maintained. The year of the lunar calendar is determined based on the time it takes for the moon to make one revolution around the earth, and each lunar month has 30 days for the big month and 29 days for the small month. However, since the average length of the lunar month is about 2953 days, if the year were composed of only 12 months, the number of days in a whole year would be only 354 or 355 days, which is a significant difference compared to the 365 or 366 days of the return year in the Gregorian calendar.
In order to compensate for this time gap, the lunar calendar cleverly adopted the system of 7 leap months in 19 years, that is, in 19 lunar years, 7 leap months were carefully arranged. The insertion of the leap month relies on the precise observation of the "middle air" in the 24 solar terms. When a lunar month fails to contain a "zhongqi", it is considered a leap month, increasing the number of days in the lunar year to 384 or 385 days.
However, the year of Jiachen in 2024 is an exception. This year, there was no leap month in the lunar calendar, so the number of days in the year remained at 354. Compared to the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar, the number of days in this year is a full 12 days less. This is because 2024 is a leap year in the Gregorian calendar, and the day February 29 has been specially added, bringing the total number of days in the Gregorian calendar year to 366, which is 12 days more than the lunar year. This difference in time not only reflects the difference between the calculation methods of the lunar calendar and the Gregorian calendar, but also highlights the unique wisdom and charm of the lunar calendar.