The Chinese New Year's Eve of the Lunar Year of the Dragon is February 9, 2024, which is the "last Chinese New Year's Eve in recent years". Because from 2025 to 2029, Chinese New Year's Eve for five consecutive years is "New Year's Eve".
Yang Jing, a member of the Chinese Astronomical Society and a director of the Tianjin Astronomical Society, explained that the moon in the mainland lunar calendar is defined according to the cycle of the moon's waxing and waning, and is called the "synodic month". The average length of a synodic month is 29.53 days, which is not a whole number, and the number of days in a month is expressed as an integer, so sometimes it is 29 days in a minor month, sometimes 30 days in a major month. At the same time, in order to ensure that the first day of the lunar month must be a new day, the arrangement of the large and small months is not fixed, which needs to be determined by precise calculations.
The Chinese lunar calendar stipulates that the day on which the moon phase "Shuo" is located is the first day of the month, so that the number of days between the two "Shuo" is a month.
It is not uncommon for the wax moon to coincide with a small moon. 2013, 2016, 2022, and 5 consecutive years from 2025 to 2029 have not had Chinese New Year's Eve. However, since the average month length is slightly more than 29 days, the number of large months is slightly more frequent than that of small months each year.
