Lunar Birthdays in Other Cultures

The Chinese lunisolar calendar has influenced many other cultures, and some have their own lunar or lunisolar calendars. In this section, we’ll take a quick tour of how different cultures handle birthdays with lunar calendars, especially focusing on East Asia where the Chinese calendar was historically shared. We’ll also clarify which cultures use the “same data system” as the Chinese calendar (and thus are compatible with our calculator) and which use different systems.

Korean Tradition

Korea traditionally used the same lunisolar calendar as China (with local variations in era names and such). Up until the late 19th century, Koreans kept time by this calendar. Korean birthday customs reflect a mix of indigenous practices and shared East Asian tradition. Like China, Korea celebrated a baby’s 100th day (백일 baegil) and first birthday (돌 dol) with big parties. We saw earlier that modern-day Koreans note whether a birthday is 음력생일 (eumnyeok saengil), or lunar birthday, or 양력생일 (yangnyeok saengil), or solar birthday.^[1] In the past, almost everyone used lunar dates for birthdays.^[2] Today, most younger Koreans use the Western date, though some families still quietly observe the lunar date for elders.^[2]

One unique aspect in Korea was (and partly still is) the concept of “Korean age.” Historically, a baby is considered one year old at birth and then everyone’s age increments on New Year’s Day (which in older times was Lunar New Year, and in modern Korea is January 1 of the Gregorian calendar).^[3] This means if you were born, say, in December, you’d turn two by Korean age on New Year just a few weeks later. This traditional age system, coupled with communal aging at New Year, meant individual birthdays were less emphasized beyond the children’s milestones and big decades. South Korea has recently moved to abolish the traditional age count in legal settings (as of June 2023) to avoid confusion, so now official documents use international age.^[3] But socially, people still celebrate birthdays. A middle-aged or older Korean might still have a lunar birthday dinner with family, whereas their kids have a cake on the solar date.

Korean birthday foods include miyeok-guk (seaweed soup), a tradition for everyone’s birthday morning in Korea, as a reminder of the mother’s nourishment (mothers eat seaweed soup after giving birth).^[2] Also, like the Chinese, longevity noodles (잔치국수) and rice cake treats often appear. The 60th birthday, called hwangap (환갑), is hugely celebrated as in China, marking the zodiac cycle completion.^[4] One difference: because South Korea now uses the Gregorian calendar officially, many consider the 60th based on international age (so actually at Western age 60, which by Korean count the person might be 61).^[4] But the spirit is the same: honoring a long life and the re-completion of the zodiac/stem cycle.

Vietnamese Tradition

Vietnam inherited much of the Chinese calendar system during the centuries of influence. They use a similar lunisolar calendar (in Vietnamese called Âm lịch), and celebrate Tết, the Lunar New Year, at the same time as Chinese New Year (with occasional day differences due to time zone). Interestingly, traditional Vietnamese culture placed even less emphasis on individual birthdays than Chinese or Korean. It was customary in Vietnam that everyone effectively had the same birthday: Tết (New Year’s Day)! On the stroke of New Year, everyone became a year older. People would congratulate children on “growing one year older” at Tết and give them lì xì (red envelope lucky money) for their new age.^[5] This is somewhat akin to the East Asian age reckoning we discussed, but in Vietnam it was especially strong. Historically, rural Vietnamese might not even know their exact birth date, only their birth year and perhaps the lunar month. Instead, all aging was communal at New Year.

In modern Vietnam, Western influence has made personal birthday parties common, especially for children, complete with cakes and candles. But among older folks, you will still find that some hardly celebrated birthdays in the Western sense. A Vietnamese of the older generation might say “I have never celebrated my birthday once,” not out of neglect, but because traditionally it wasn’t a thing; Tết was the big “birthday” for everybody, and one’s nominal age increased then. There’s even a saying that everyone’s birthday is the first day of the lunar year. Moreover, Vietnamese count age in the same way (1 at birth, add one each Tết), sometimes called “tuổi mụ”.^[5] So if you ask a Vietnamese elder their age, be aware if they give a number it might be their East Asian age.

Vietnamese culture does share the longevity birthday customs for elders. For example, celebrating a 70th, 80th birthday with special respect, giving the person a title like “ông/bà thọ” (longevity grandpa/grandma) and ceremonial teas. Dishes like sticky rice, chicken, and noodle soup might be served rather than cake. The influence of Chinese symbolism is present: they also have longevity noodles and often longevity peaches (buns or peach-shaped cakes) for an elder’s party, though this is more common in the ethnic Chinese communities in Vietnam.

A unique difference: the zodiac animal differences we mentioned earlier. In Vietnam it’s the Year of the Cat instead of Rabbit, and the Year of the Buffalo (water-buffalo) instead of Ox.^[6] This doesn’t affect birthdays much, but it’s interesting if you’re Vietnamese: your zodiac sign might be one animal off from the Chinese zodiac if you’re a Rabbit/Cat or Ox/Buffalo. The Lunar Birthday Calculator on our site will show the Chinese zodiac animal; Vietnamese users can simply remember the swap if it applies. (For example, someone born in 1975, a Rabbit year in China, would be Cat in Vietnam.)

Japanese Tradition

Japan used the Chinese lunisolar calendar until 1873, when during the Meiji Restoration they adopted the Gregorian calendar formally. Before that, they called the lunar calendar the 旧暦 (kyūreki, “old calendar”) and had the same 12 animals (known as Eto 干支 for the combined stem-branch, or junishi for the 12 branch animals) for years. However, Japanese today do not use the lunar calendar for birthdays or festivals (except some local moon festivals and Chinese community celebrations). They celebrate New Year on January 1 and birthdays on the exact Gregorian date. So, contemporary Japanese have little concept of “lunar birthday”; it’s basically a non-issue now. Historically, like the rest, they too used East Asian age reckoning (called kazoedoshi), where everyone aged at New Year’s and a baby was 1 at birth.^[7] But this was abolished by law in 1902, and by mid-20th century nearly everyone used Western age.^[3]

That said, some very old Japanese alive today (in their 90s or 100s) might recall the notion of “counted age.” For cultural interest, the Japanese do still strongly celebrate the 60th birthday (Kanreki), with the person often donning a red sleeveless vest and cap (赤いちゃんちゃんこ) symbolizing return to infancy and a new cycle.^[4] They also mark ages 70 (Koki), 77 (Kiju), 88 (Beiju), etc., with special names and celebrations. But all by Gregorian date now.

Other Cultures

Beyond East Asia, there are other lunar or lunisolar calendars:

The Hebrew (Jewish) calendar is lunisolar (months based on moon, with leap month 7 times in 19 years). Many Jewish people, especially in religious communities, know their Hebrew birthday. For instance, someone might celebrate becoming a Bar Mitzvah on their Hebrew birthdate. Hebrew birthdays are observed by some with extra prayer or a small gathering. However, our calculator does not calculate Hebrew calendar dates, as it’s a different system (the Hebrew calendar’s year and month patterns differ from the Chinese). There are separate tools for that.
The Hijri (Islamic) calendar is a pure lunar calendar with 12 months of 29 or 30 days and no intercalation, so the months drift through seasons. In many Muslim-majority countries, the Gregorian calendar is used for civil purposes and personal birthdays (some very devout families might note a child’s birth in Hijri date, but it’s not commonly celebrated that way). Generally, individual birthdays are not traditionally emphasized in Islamic practice; it varies by culture.
The Hindu and various Indian calendars are complex. Many are lunisolar, with their own month names and leap rules, differing by region. In India, it’s quite common among religious families to observe the star birthday or Tithi (lunar date) for ritual purposes. Those calendars are beyond our scope, but it’s fascinating that the concept of lunar birthday exists in multiple cultures.
Tibetan calendar: Tibet has a lunisolar calendar very similar to the Chinese (in fact, historically imported from China with some modifications). Tibetan Buddhists celebrate the Buddha’s birthday on a lunar date. For individual birthdays, traditionally Tibetans weren’t big on annual birthday parties. Nowadays, as with others, Western-style celebrations are creeping in.

Our Lunar Birthday Calculator is specifically based on the Chinese calendar algorithms, which means it will correctly handle dates for the Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese calendars (since they are essentially the same dates, just with perhaps different names for animals or months). It will not yield meaningful results for the Hebrew or Islamic dates (those would require separate conversion data). So when we say “Lunar Birthday” on this site, we mean it in the East Asian sense.

Blending Calendars in Modern Life

It’s interesting to see how people today juggle two calendars. For example, a Chinese person might celebrate their Gregorian birthday with friends by going out to dinner or having a cake, and then a week or two later, when the lunar date comes, have a family meal with traditional foods prepared by mom (noodles, eggs, and so on). Neither is considered “wrong”; they serve different aspects of life. The Gregorian date is fixed and easy, and important for official forms and for receiving those WeChat and Facebook messages! The lunar date connects one to heritage and pleases the elders who grew up with that system.

In multicultural communities (say Chinese diaspora in Western countries), some families quietly keep the lunar date alive so that grandparents feel respected, while also embracing the Western style so the kids feel included with peers. There’s no conflict. Rather, having two birthdays is seen as having two chances to feel special! And who would complain about that?

One more note: When dealing with lunar birthdays across cultures, keep in mind time zone differences. The Chinese calendar traditionally uses the timezone of China’s longitude (UTC+8) for calculations.^[8] For places like Vietnam (UTC+7) or Korea (UTC+9), historically there have been rare instances where the lunar date differs by one day or the leap month assignment can differ once in a while. For example, in one year early 20th century, Vietnam’s calendar started the new year a day apart from China’s due to the one-hour time difference causing the new moon to fall on different dates locally. These are uncommon, but worth mentioning for thoroughness. In today’s practice, most East Asian calendars are aligned to the Beijing calculations or something very close, so generally you won’t see divergence. Our calculator uses the standard reference (China’s calendar) which should be accurate for users in all relevant countries for contemporary dates.