Lunar New Year, Lunisolar New Year, and Old New Year

by Rian

I’m sure people are now aware of the hot topic which is about to erupt again next week —what to call New Year festivities celebrated by Asians, which is somehow not on the day of the New Year. I don’t consider myself to be an etymologist, but I’m old enough to remember how things were back in the 80s and 90s. We were throwing the word “Chinese” to describe pretty much anything Asian, —or oriental, as I was taught back then— and the public didn’t care for accuracy in the usage. It meant something exotic, and it meant something not Western. It’s like that henchman from Goldfinger, the guy with guillotine hat, who is described to be Korean, —with other vulgarities attached— working with other Chinese nuclear experts, while portrayed by Japanese American actor in the film —and the book makes a point of mentioning him being mistaken as Japanese. And yet I hear some people are joyfully citing Auric Goldfinger to get their points across.

I’m obviously not immune from missing the wave. I remember the first time hearing the online debate; I thought to myself, ‘that’s just an old way of calling it’, only to realize there is obviously also an actual Chinese celebration that is distinctively different from other Asian varieties, celebrated on the New Year of lunar calendar. So if I understood the argument correctly, there are different celebrations of “Lunar New Year”, and we, as the society, are moving toward learning which is which, instead of just throwing a blanket term at it.

This debate, by the way, isn’t limited to just English language. I’ve read confused responses from people who are told why the traditional phrasing of “Chinese” in this particular context, the catch-all-phrase, is not healthy for discussion, and yet how this must be just an American thing. It isn’t. Similar changes are happening in Korean language, and it is happening right now in Korea.

As I have previously posted, the “lunar calendar” is actually a lunisolar calendar, the calendar system that uses both lunar and solar calendar, and what we generally call “the calendar” is Gregorian calendar from Catholic church. For Koreans, with the introduction of the new calendar system, this meant that they needed a way to tell which one of the “New Year” is the “New Year” in the context. The one that I grew up with is 신정-구정, where the first one is the Gregorian New Year and literally means “New New Year”, whereas the second one is lunisolar and literally means “Old New Year”. The combination fell out of use, as it is quite detached from daily vocabulary; Gregorian calendar is generally called solar calendar in Korea, not “new calendar”. So for more formal context, I’ve seen 양력설-음력설, “solar New Year” and “lunisolar New Year”, respectively. But when used alone, so 설날, usually means the lunisolar one, whereas Gregorian new year is called 새해 첫날, first day of the new year.

I hope I didn’t throw people off with extra details. My point is that language is always changing. And I want people to see the change as an opportunity. Maybe you will never visit any of the East Asian countries that use lunisolar calendars, or maybe you don’t even enjoy their food at a food court. But rest assured, we are not living as far away as some people like to think it is. I’m sure people have seen setbacks in crowdfunding due to holidays abroad. So, happy new year once again to anyone celebrating Lunar New Year. I probably won’t be doing anything special, but I will definitely enjoy some days off next week.