| Year 2004 of Chinese Astrology Green Monkey Year Year 2004 is a Chinese Green Wooden Monkey Year. Why did the Chinese name the year 2004 as the Green Monkey Year? Chinese calendar used the Stem-Branch system to count the days, months and years. There are 10 Stems and 12 Branches in this system. Stems are named by the Yin-Yang and Five Elements (Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth). The Stem sequence order is Yang Wood, Yin Wood, Yang Fire, Yin Fire, Yang Earth, Yin Earth, Yang Metal, Yin Metal, Yang Water and Yin Water. Branches use the animal names. The Branch sequence order is Rat, Cow, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Chicken, Dog and Pig. Stem and Branch are used together to form a cycle of 60 counting systems which begin with Wooden Rat and end with Water Pig. From Year 1924 to 1983 is a complete cycle. Year 2004 is Male Wooden Monkey , the 21st of the Stem-Branch in the system. Because Wood(Tree) is equivalent to color Green in the Five-Element system, Year 2004 is also called Green Monkey year. |
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| Chinese New Year The Chinese New Year day is on January 22nd, 2004. Because this is a new moon day, it is the first day of the first Chinese lunar month in the Chinese Lunar Calendar system. The new moon time is at 05:05 on 22-Jan-04 in China time zone. However, the new moon time is at 13:05 of 21-Jan-04 in the US Pacific Standard Time and also at 10:05 of 21-Jan-04 in the US Eastern Standard Time, so the Chinese New Year day is on January 21st, 2004 for USA time zones. |