24 Solar Terms 2027: Every Date, Explained

The 24 solar terms of 2027 run from Xiaohan on 5 January to Dongzhi on 22 December, at intervals of roughly fifteen days. They are not lunar dates. Each term marks the moment the sun reaches a particular point in its apparent path around the earth, which is why the same term lands within a day or two of the same calendar date every year, and why the terms are the part of the Chinese calendar that stays put while the lunar months slide. This page lists all 24 dates for 2027 and explains how they are used, both in the festival calendar and in the almanac.

What a solar term actually marks

The sun's apparent path is divided into 24 equal segments of 15 degrees. A solar term is the instant the sun enters one of those segments. The first, Lichun, is defined as the point where the sun's longitude is 315 degrees; each later term adds 15 degrees.

Because the definition is astronomical rather than arithmetic, a term is an instant, not a whole day. The date printed on a calendar is the calendar day on which that instant falls, measured in the reference time zone the calendar uses. Chinese calendars normally use Beijing time, UTC+8.

The names were coined for agriculture in the Yellow River basin and describe what the weather is doing at that point in the year: awakening insects, grain rain, white dew, frost's descent. They remain useful as a description of the seasonal position even where the local climate does not match the name.

The 24 are divided into two groups of twelve. The twelve section terms, which include Lichun, Jingzhe, Qingming and Lidong, open the months of the traditional solar calendar and are the ones most often used as boundaries in almanac work. The twelve middle terms, which include Chunfen, Xiazhi, Qiufen and Dongzhi, mark the midpoint of each solar month, and the two solstices and two equinoxes sit in this group. For most readers the distinction matters only when a chart or an almanac refers to the section term as a month boundary, because the month in that system begins at the section term rather than at the new moon.

The 24 solar terms of 2027

The table is the whole year in order. Two entries deserve separate attention: Lichun on 4 February and Qingming on 5 April, because both carry a second function beyond marking the season.

Why the dates hold steady while lunar dates move

A lunar month is about 29.5 days and twelve of them total about 354 days, so lunar dates drift against the seasons. A solar term is anchored to the sun, so it cannot drift the same way. This is the reason the 24 terms are used as the fixed skeleton of the lunisolar calendar: the leap month rule exists precisely to keep the lunar months from wandering away from the terms.

The terms are also what tell the calendar when a month is "the first month of spring" in agricultural terms, regardless of what the lunar date says. A month that contains no major term is, by the standard rule, a candidate for being doubled as a leap month. The 2027 calendar has no leap month, which is consistent with its twelve lunar months each containing the terms expected of them.

The intervals are worth noting because they are not exactly fifteen days. Between successive terms the gap ranges from fourteen to sixteen days, since the earth's orbital speed varies over the year: it is fastest in early January and slowest in early July. In the 2027 table the shortest gap is fourteen days, from Dongzhi on 22 December to Xiaohan on 5 January, and the longest is sixteen days, from Xiaoshu on 7 July to Dashu on 23 July and again from Dashu to Liqiu on 8 August. The variation is a property of the orbit, not an error in the table.

For the way the months and terms fit together over the whole year, including the festival dates that follow the lunar months, see the Chinese lunar calendar 2027.

Where the terms show up in practice

The first place is the year boundary. New Year's Day in the festival calendar is 6 February 2027, but the year pillar used in a birth chart changes at Lichun on 4 February. Someone born between those two dates therefore has a different animal year depending on which reckoning is used. The festival side of that week is described in Chinese New Year 2027.

The second place is Qingming. The tomb-sweeping observance is held on the day of the Qingming term, which in 2027 is 5 April. Because the observance follows the term rather than a fixed date, it lands on 4 April in some years and 5 April in others.

The third place is the almanac. Every daily entry is labelled with the solar term the day belongs to, and the label is used when a day is being chosen for an activity that is seasonally constrained, such as breaking ground or moving house. The label is part of the day's description, not a verdict on it. To see the label on a specific day, open the calendar entry for that date and read the term printed with the lunar date.

The fourth place is the winter solstice, Dongzhi, on 22 December 2027. In the traditional calendar it marks the point after which daylight lengthens, and in many communities it is observed with a family meal a few days before the Western new year.

A fifth use is more practical than ceremonial. Farmers and gardeners in southern China still time planting and pruning by the term, and the naming convention carries enough detail to be useful even where the climate does not match the Yellow River basin. Rice is transplanted around Mangzhong, wheat is harvested before Xiaoshu, and the interval between Qingming and Guyu is treated as the safe window for spring sowing in many regions. These are rules of thumb rather than astronomical statements, and local practice overrides them where the two conflict.

Common mistakes with solar terms

The first mistake is treating the terms as lunar dates. They are solar, and their Gregorian dates are almost stable, which is the opposite of how lunar dates behave.

The second is assuming each term falls on the same date every year. It falls within about a day, so a table from another year cannot be reused without checking.

The third is assuming the term begins at midnight. It begins at an instant, which may be in the middle of a day; the calendar prints the date, not the moment, and for ordinary use the date is enough.

The fourth is assuming the terms fall on the same local date everywhere. Because the instant is converted to a local date, a place several hours away from the reference time zone can put the same term on the neighbouring day.

The fifth is confusing Qingming the term with Qingming the public holiday. The holiday arrangements are set by each government and can differ by several days from the term itself.

A sixth, less a mistake than a habit, is relying on a translated name when comparing sources. English renderings of the terms vary widely — Yushui appears as Rain Water, Spring Showers or simply Yu Shui — so two tables that look unrelated may be describing the same twenty-four markers under different labels. Comparing the dates, not the names, settles the question quickly.

Checking a term's date

To confirm any date in the table, open the daily Chinese calendar, go to the month in question, and read the term label on the day. The entry shows the term name and marks the day on which the term falls, so the table above can be checked day by day rather than trusted.

If two sources disagree by a day, the difference is almost always the time zone used for the conversion or the version of the astronomical data behind the table. Both are discussed in why Chinese calendars give different dates.