Chapter 64 Section 6 Other Ethnic Minority Calendars

Except for the above-mentioned ethnic groups who have their own systematic calendars, other ethnic minorities either completely use the Han calendar or are still in the stage of phenology calendar.Although some documents record the astronomical and calendar knowledge of these peoples themselves, they are also incomplete, and it is difficult to see the whole picture. For example, the Lahu people divide a year into 12 months, each with 30 days, and there is no leap month.The Wa people, who are adjacent to the Lahu people, have 12 months in a year and 30 days in January, but there is a leap month, which is called "strange month".

The Zoni people (the self-proclaimed part of the Hani people) adjust the size of the moon by directly observing the appearance of the new moon.Although the Dulong people have the concept of year and month, the number of days in each month varies, and the age is not fixed.The Mole people are a branch of the Bai nationality, and their calendar not only has no similarities with the Bai nationality, but also is different from other nearby ethnic groups.The Mele people customarily say that there are 13 months in a year and 30 days in each month, but not all 13 months are completed every year, and 30 days are completed every month, which includes virtual months and days.The virtual month is a leap month, and the existence of a leap month is determined by observing whether the peach blossoms are open.The Mole people set the second day of the first day as a false day, and after the first day of the first day, they found that the new moon was the second day of the first day, and the month actually had only 29 days.The new year falls on Dragon Day or Snake Day in late December.The Gaoshan nationality regards two consecutive harvests as a year, and two consecutive full moons as a month, so the number of months in a year is not fixed, and the number of days in a month is also not fixed.

These culturally relatively backward ethnic groups now use the Gregorian calendar or the Han calendar.