The Year 2016 is the 4713th Chinese year

The 2016 Chinese New Year Day is on February 8, 2016. This day is a new moon day, and is the first day of the first Chinese lunar month in the Chinese Lunar Calendar system. The exact new moon time is at 22:40 p.m. on 8-Feb-2016 in China's time zone.

The Year 2016 is the 4713th Chinese year. The Chinese believe that the first king of China was the Yellow King (he was not the first emperor of China). The Yellow King became king in 2697 B.C., therefore China will enter the 4713th year on February 8, 2016. Also, the Chinese Year uses the cycle of 60 Stem-Branch counting systems and the Red Fire Monkey is the 33rd Stem-Branch in the cycle. Since (60 * 78) + 33 = 4713, therefore 2016 is the Fire Monkey year, which is the 4713th Chinese Year.

2016 is the year of Monkey. Some people say 2016 is a Red Monkey or Fire Monkey year. This is because the Stem-Branch Calendar is connected to the Five Element theory. Chinese calendars 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).