The way the
Chinese lunar calendar works is that it has 12 months of 30 days each, which leaves the year short by 5 days each year. To prevent the calendar from drifting in the same manner as the
Islamic lunar calendar, every few years there is a year that has 13 months (the extra month is called an "
intercalary month") instead of twelve, at which point the calendar will jump back a month. Hence, there is some variation of the
Chinese New Year between late
January and
February.
When people set off firecrackers on Chinese New Year, it is significantly louder than Independance Day in the US. Also, the fireworks are set off not only on the New Year's day but also for a couple of weeks afterward. (although the New Year's day is when most of the firecrackers are lit.)
There is also a 60-year cycle of years which utilizes the so-called "heavenly stems and earthly branches". There are 10 heavenly stems and 12 earthly branches (each of which corresponds with an animal as well) which are paired, 1 heavenly stem and 1 earthly branch to form the counting system for years. (note that odd-numbered stems are only paired with odd-numbered branches, which is why the year cycle has only 60 years instead of 120)
Traditionally, year dates were given by first naming the dynasty, then the reign period (each emperor has his own reign period) and then the year in the year cycle;however, the year cycle is independent of the reign period, so in order to figure out the actual year AD you have to add: 1923 (which is a "zero year" in the year cycle) to the year in the year cycle and then count backwards in time in multiples of 60 years until you reach a year that is within the reign period that you are looking for. This process is not difficult, but it requires a bit of memorization.