Lichun 立春 — Start of Spring

The first of the twenty-four solar terms and the traditional beginning of the year in the calendrical sense. Lichun falls around 4 February and marks the sun's arrival at 315 degrees of ecliptic longitude. In the traditional calendar this — not the lunar new year — is the point at which the year's cycle turns, and it is the term that the four-pillar system uses to change the year.

It is a solar term — a date fixed by the sun's position, not by the moon. The first of the twenty-four solar terms and the traditional beginning of the year in the calendrical sense. Lichun is the single most consequential solar term for anyone working with the calendar systems, because it is where the technical year and the festival year come apart.

The term is the reason a birth in January or early February is frequently misassigned: BaZi and the kua number change at Lichun, while popular practice changes at the lunar new year, and the two dates can be weeks apart. It is grouped under Wood (木) in the five-element system.