Chinese Calendar 2027: Lunar Months, Dates and Year Boundaries

2027 lunar months: start dates, end dates and lengths

This table covers the complete lunar year that starts in 2027. All start and end dates are Gregorian dates, and both endpoints are included. The dates follow the Chinese calendar reference convention of UTC+8, not a lunar calendar recalculated for the reader’s local time zone.

Each end date is the day before the following lunar month begins; each length is the number of days between successive month starts.

There are six 30-day months and six 29-day months, giving a total of 354 days. The lengths do not alternate mechanically: months 1 and 2 both have 30 days, while months 5 and 6 both have 29.

Before 6 February: the previous lunar year

1 January through 5 February 2027 still belongs to the 2026 lunar year, the Year of the Horse. On 1 January, the lunar date is month 11, day 24. The previous year’s twelfth lunar month begins on 8 January 2027 and ends on 5 February, its 29th day. The following day starts month 1 of the new lunar year.

This explains an apparent repetition in a Gregorian 2027 conversion table: the twelfth lunar month starts once in January and again in December. Those months belong to different lunar years. They are not a regular month and a leap month within the same year.

January 2028: finishing the 2027 lunar year

The first 25 days of January 2028 are still part of the 2027 lunar year. The twelfth lunar month begins in late December and continues without resetting when the Gregorian year changes.

The final lunar month therefore contains four days in December 2027 and 25 days in January 2028, for 29 days altogether. There is no day 30 in this twelfth month. The next lunar year begins on 26 January 2028, not on 1 January.

When recording a lunar date in this period, include the lunar year as well as the month and day. For example, 1 January 2028 corresponds to lunar year 2027, month 12, day 5; using the Gregorian year number as the lunar year would put the date in the wrong year.

Is there a leap month in 2027?

No. The 2027 lunar year has the twelve ordinary months, with no additional leap month. The sequence runs from month 1 to month 12 and then moves directly to month 1 of the next lunar year.

Although often called a “lunar calendar,” the Chinese calendar is more precisely lunisolar: its months follow the Moon, while its year is kept in step with the seasons. A cycle from one new moon to the next averages about 29.53 days. Calendar months therefore have 29 or 30 whole days, rather than the fixed month lengths used in the Gregorian calendar.

Twelve lunar months are shorter than a solar year. In some years, the Chinese calendar adds an extra month to prevent the months from continually drifting through the seasons. That is a leap month, not the extra February day used in a Gregorian leap year. No such extra lunar month is needed in the 2027 sequence.

How to read a lunar date from the table

Find the row whose Gregorian date range contains the date you are checking. Its start date is lunar day 1. Count forward from there, including that first day:

Lunar day = days elapsed since the lunar month’s start + 1.

For example, the fourth lunar month begins on 6 May 2027. The date 20 May 2027 is 14 days later, so it is lunar month 4, day 15. It is not 15 April: lunar month numbers do not name Gregorian months.

A few Chinese labels help when reading a bilingual calendar. 正月 means the first lunar month, 初一 means day 1, 十五 means day 15, 廿九 means day 29, and 三十 means day 30. Thus 正月初一 is the first day of the first lunar month.

In Hong Kong Observatory (HKO)’s conversion tables, a shaded cell containing a lunar month name marks day 1 of that month. It is not a missing day number. The numbered lunar dates then continue until the next month-name cell.

For a particular birthday, anniversary or date in a record, use the Gregorian–lunar date converter to check the complete year, month and day together.

Reference time and the lunar-year boundary

Under the Chinese calendar reference convention used here, lunar month boundaries are assigned using UTC+8, the time offset used in Hong Kong and mainland China. A month starts on the reference civil date containing the astronomical new moon, rather than on a date chosen by observing the first visible crescent. The new moon’s date in another time zone should not be substituted for the published Chinese calendar date.

The lunar-year labels in this guide change on Lunar New Year—the first day of the first lunar month. They do not change on 1 January or on Lichun, the solar term also called Beginning of Spring. HKO lists that solar term, under “Spring Commences,” on 4 February 2027, separately from the first lunar month’s start on 6 February. A solar-term label on a calendar does not, by itself, mean that a lunar month or lunar year has changed.