Korean calendar

The traditional Korean calendar is a which, like the traditional calendars of other n countries, was based on the. Dates are calculated from Korea's, and observances and festivals are based in.

The was officially adopted in 1895, but traditional holidays and age-reckoning are still based on the old calendar. The biggest festival in Korea today is Seollal (the traditional ). Other important festivals include (the first full moon),  (spring festival) and  (harvest festival).

Features

 * The of 12  (animals), which were used for counting hours and years;
 * Ten, which were combined with the 12 Earthly Branches to form a sixty-year cycle;
 * Twenty-four s (jeolgi 節氣 절기) in the year, spaced roughly 15 days apart;
 * Lunar months including leap months added every two or three years.

History
The traditional calendar designated its years via s from 270 to 963. Then s were used until when the official use of the lunar calendar ceased.

The Gregorian calendar was adopted by the new on , but with years numbered from the foundation of the  in 1393. From 1897, Korean era names were used for its years until in 1910. Then s were used to count the years of the Gregorian calendar used in Korea until Japanese occupation ended in 1945.

From 1945 until 1961 in, Gregorian calendar years were counted from the foundation of in 2333  (regarded as year one), the date of the legendary founding of Korea by , hence these Dangi (단기) years were 4278 to 4294. This numbering was informally used with the Korean lunar calendar before 1945 but is only occasionally used today.

Festivals
The lunar calendar is used for the observation of traditional festivals, such as Korean New Year, Chuseok, and. It is also used for memorial services for ancestors and the marking of birthdays by older Koreans.

Traditional holidays
There is also a number of regional festivals, celebrated according to the lunar calendar. See also and.