More on 'Imlek'

I would like to add to Mr. Liem Sian Tie`s letter entitled Imlek a misnomer (The Jakarta Post, Feb. 19), and also Mr. Musa's letter Imlek and its consequences on Feb. 25.

Imlek, a Hokkien pronunciation for Yinli in Chinese meaning lunar calendar is indeed a misnomer but it has been a widely accepted misnomer here in Indonesia for Chinese new year. The Chinese calendar is not only lunar but also solar.

And the Chinese new year is indeed more a solar new year than a lunar new year as it marks the beginning of the change of season from winter to spring and is generally called Chun-jie or spring festival in China. The Chinese calendar is actually a combination of both the lunar and solar year. And these two seemingly incompatible cycles are reconciled by interposing an intercalary lunar month every third year to the lunar calendar as 12 lunar months do not equal one solar year. A lunar year has 12 months and each lunar month has either 29 or 30 days and the first day of the lunar month is arranged to correspond to the new moon and the 15th day to correspond to the full moon.

The actual traditional Chinese calendar, better known as NongLi or agricultural or farming calendar, is solar and is used together with the lunar calendar or YinLi. Traditionally the NongLi or agricultural calendar is to mark the seasonal changes for agricultural purposes. Remember that China with only a not so fertile 7 percent of the world's arable land feeds about a quarter of the world's population. The lunar calendar on the other hand is more for religious rites and rituals and traditional festivals.

Yet the so-called Chinese new year is not only observed religiously by Chinese but also by Koreans, Vietnamese and by some Japanese too and of course by most of the Chinese- Indonesians.

This so-called Chinese new year is in fact not so much an ethnic celebration for Chinese only but is also a cultural event that transcends nationalities.

It is a universal cultural event that calls for family union, thanksgiving, debt settlement, friendship renewal and reinforcement. It is an expression of the Chinese desire for "paradise on earth" albeit for a few days only.

SIA KA-MOU

Jakarta