Chinese Religious Year
CHINESE RELIGIOUS YEAR. The religious year of traditional China may be visualized as a circular base that is the calendar, upon which three overlays are superimposed. The first overlay shows the annual pan-Chinese observances; the second shows the celebrations of local, popular cults centered on the birthdays of particular deities; the third shows the schedule of official state sacrifices. I shall discuss each of these cycles of observances in turn.
The Religious Year and the Calendar
Traditionally, the dates of religious significance in the year were made known through a calendar issued by the Bureau of Astronomy in the Ministry of Rites. This calendar combined lunar and solar calculations, but for the religious year the former were more important. The waxing and waning of the moon was the most conspicuous indicator of change in the heavens, and the new and full moons thus formed focal points in the nexus of natural and human time. Solstices and equinoxes, as determined by the astronomers, were not so obvious, but were nevertheless important moments in the religious year because of their connection with the dominant or recessive phase of yin and yang.
The official calendar also indicated other kinds of time, of which two were most important in the religious year.
This page contains 201 words.
Chinese Religious Year article
Read the rest of this article.
This article contains 4,324 words
(approx. 14 pages at 300 words per page).
Order our Chinese calendar Article
