The traditional Chinese lunar calendar follows the cycles of the moon, not the sun as in the west, and uses celestial animal-years astrological signs instead of birth months to calculate astrological signs as in the western solar (gregorian) calendar. Both types of calendars are used and readily available in Taiwan. On paper the two calenders look similar with only the lunar dates appearing in smaller numbers on the page.

     Birth months are still useful in the lunar calendar but not as critical as in the solar. In addition to the celestial animals, the lunar calendar also is associated with the Five Cosmic Elements which are: metal, wood, earth, water, and fire. Since each of the animals is associated with each of the Five Elements a full cosmic cycle takes 60 years to complete and then the sequence repeats itself once again.

     Like the Western solar calendar, the lunar calendar has 12 months, each consisting of 29 or 30 days. Since the lunar month is slightly shorter than the solar month the two calendars do not correspond to one another. To keep the 2 calenders harmonized, an extra month is added to the lunar calendar every 30 months by the Chinese, creating a sort of lunar leap year. This is the reason why the most important festival/holiday in Chinese culture, the Chinese lunar New Year, varies in date each year but usually falls somewhere between the 21st of January and the 28th of February. Each month begins with the newmoon, and the full moon always falls on the 15th day.

      The Chinese calendar was first created during the reign of the Yellow Emperor, around 2,700 BC.  According to the Chinese, they are still living in the 49th century, not the 21st. The strong influence of the traditional Chinese zodiac and lunar calendar today is incredible. Almost all major Chinese and all local Taiwanese festivals are still determined according to the lunar calendar, which means they fall on different days each year in the Western calendar.