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Chinese New Year
Though it has undergone many changes, the celebration of the Chinese New Year remains the most important and most anticipated holiday in China.
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Aztec calendar
dating system based on the Mayan calendar and used in the Valley of Mexico before the destruction of the Aztec empire. Like the Mayan calendar, the Aztec calendar consisted of a ritual cycle of 260 days and a 365-day civil cycle.
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Egyptian Calendar
dating system established several thousand years before the Christian era, the first calendar known to use a year of 365 days, approximately equal to the solar year.
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2012
There has long been speculation that on December 21, 2012, the world as we know it will end.
A dating system used concurrently with the Gregorian (Western) calendar in China and Taiwan and in neighbouring countries (e.g., Japan).
The Chinese calendar is basically lunar, its year consisting of 12 months of alternately 29 and 30 days, equal to 354 days, or approximately 12 full lunar cycles. Intercalary months have been inserted to keep the calendar year in step with the solar year of about 365 days.
Months are referred to by number within a year and sometimes also by a series of 12 animal names that from ancient times have been attached to years and to hours of the day.
These names in order are: rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, fowl, dog, and pig. T
he Chinese year 4698 (which arrived on Feb. 5, 2000, by the Gregorian calendar) was the Year of the Dragon.
Copyright © 1994-2009 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. For more information visit Britannica.com.
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This Day in History
Feb 9
Lead Story
Satchel Paige nominated to Baseball Hall of Fame, 1971
On this day in 1971, pitcher Leroy "Satchel" Paige becomes the first Negro League veteran to be nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame. In August of that…
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