General Rule (4)

As we have discussed earlier, a lunar calendar is a calendar whose date indicates different moon phases. A lunar month means the time it takes the moon to change from new moon to full moon to new moon again, is about 29.53 days. Calendars count integer days, so months may be 29 or 30 days in length, in some regular or irregular sequence. And as a result of shorter month, 12 lunar months is only 354.36 days, which is almost 11 days shorter than a solar year.

Dates in a lunar calendar, therefore, rapidly move backward through the seasons, so that a date in summer eventually ends up in winter, and vice versa. This makes it difficult to use the calendar to plant crops or schedule seasonal religious celebrations. This difference is made up every 19 years by the addition of seven lunar months. On average, we have a leap year (with a leap month) about every three years. The following table shows you the date of leap months from 19031-2030.

So, if you were born on 1st June, 1982, your birth month should be counted as the 4th lunar month of 1982. On the other hand, if you were born on 15th June, 1982, your birth month should be on the 5th lunar month of 1982.