{"id":117559,"date":"2026-02-05T11:00:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559//?p=117559"},"modified":"2026-02-05T15:01:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T20:01:59","slug":"celebrating-the-lunar-new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559//celebrating-the-lunar-new-year/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559//","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the Lunar New Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again in 2026, a time of new beginnings is upon us as the Lunar New Year kicks off Feb. 17, also known as the Year of the Horse./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559/n

A solar year /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559/u2014 the time it takes Earth to orbit the sun /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559/u2014 lasts around 365 days, while a lunar year, or 12 full cycles of the moon, is roughly 354 days. A lunar calendar marks important holidays and celebrations for many religions and cultures./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559/u201cEssentially we are talking about time keeping, which is a very important function in any culture or society because time must be standardized if it is to be of any use,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559/u201d says UCF Associate Professor of Philosophy Lanlan Kuang, whose research specializes in Asian arts, humanities, heritage and tradition. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559/u201cThe British Library has a Chinese star chart (the Dunhuang Star Atlas) that is dated to 700 AD, and what/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559/u2019s interesting is, you can see zodiac names in Chinese characters on this chart. Part of what that tells us people from around the globe have been applying astronomical observations and mathematical analysis as means for time keeping for a very long time./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/117559/n