Chinese New Year day or even one moon cycle due to using a meridian based on a different capital city in a different time zone or different placements of intercalary months. Chinese calendar defines the lunar month with winter solstice as the 11th month, which means that Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice (rarely the third if an intercalary month intervenes). In more than 96% of the years, the Chinese New Year's Day is the closest new moon to lichun () on 4 or 5 February, and the first new moon after Dahan (). In
Month on the initial approximation that 2 lunations last 59 days: a 30-day full month followed by a 29-day hollow month — but this is only roughly accurate, and eventually needs correction by using larger cycles, or the equivalent of leap days. Additionally, the synodic month does not fit easily into the year, which makes accurate, rule-based lunisolar calendars complicated. The most common solution to this problem is the Metonic cycle, which takes advantage of the fact that 235 lunations are approximately 19 tropical years (which add up to not quite 6940 days). However, a Metonic calendar will drift against the