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East Asian age reckoning is a concept and practice that originated in China and is widely used by other cultures in East Asia. Newborns start at the age of one year, and at the beginning of lichun (usually February 4, sometimes February 5th) which is the first of the 24 solar terms, one year is added to the person's age. In other words, the first year of life is counted as ''one'' instead of zero, so that a person is ''two'' years old in their first year, ''three'' years old in their second, and so on. Since age is incremented on the beginning of solar term rather than on a birthday, people may be one or two years older in Asian reckoning than in the Western system. ==Variations in Date for Change of Age== In China, the age changes on the first day of lichun, which is the first solar term of the 24 solar terms, which usually falls some time on 4 February, though sometimes it falls on the 5th as well.〔()〕 The current age reckoning system in use in South Korea is based on the Gregorian Calendar, though originally Koreans also followed lichun as the beginning of the year and also the date for change of age. In Eastern Outer Mongolia, age is traditionally determined based on the number of full moons since conception for girls, and the number of new moons since birth for boys. In Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea, lichun as the date for change of age is used for traditional fortune-telling or religion. The idea of a universal birthday disappeared from all of the Sinosphere, China and Japan having switched over to the western age reckoning system, with the sole exception of Korea, though the universal birthday shifted from lichun to New Year's Day. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「East Asian age reckoning」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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