Chinese Calendar Date Converter

How to convert a Chinese lunar date

1. Choose Gregorian to Chinese or Chinese to Gregorian in the converter above.
2. Enter the full date, including its year. For a Chinese date, select the regular or leap month exactly as your source records it.
3. Read the Gregorian date beside the Chinese year, month and day. A lunar month number is not the same as a Gregorian month number.

English date to Chinese date, or Chinese date to English date?

“English to Chinese date converter” usually describes a Gregorian-to-lunar conversion. An English-language date such as February 10, 2024 is still a Gregorian date. Changing the language or writing it as 2024-02-10 does not turn it into a lunar date. Use the first direction for a civil birthday or appointment; use the reverse direction for a date recorded by lunar month and day.

A Chinese lunar date needs four details: year, month, day, and whether the month is regular or leap. A date written only as “second month, day one” is incomplete in a year with a leap second month. This converter makes those two choices separate, and rejects a day that does not exist in the chosen month.

Two dates to try

February 10, 2024 converts to the first day of the first Chinese lunar month: Lunar New Year. In the other direction, the first day of the leap second month of 2023 converts to March 22, 2023. Selecting the regular second month gives a different date.

Compare the examples with the Hong Kong Observatory’s Gregorian–Lunar Calendar Conversion Tables. This tool converts calendar dates; it does not convert birth times or time zones.

Chinese calendar converter for Excel

For a list of family birthdays or dated records, download the daily Gregorian–Chinese calendar lookup CSV. It contains one row per supported date, from January 31, 1900 through January 28, 2101, covering lunar years 1900–2100. The CSV is a static lookup table generated with this site’s calendar engine; it contains no macros and needs no online calls after download.

1. In Excel, use Data → From Text/CSV. Choose comma as the delimiter and set gregorian_iso and lunar_key to Text before loading. Keep the original six column names.
2. Load the data as a table, then set its Table Name to Calendar. On a separate worksheet, format cell B2 as Text and enter 2024-02-10.
3. In B3, enter =XLOOKUP(B2,Calendar[gregorian_iso],Calendar[lunar_key],"Date not found",0). It returns 2024-01-01-Regular. The final zero requires an exact match.
4. For the reverse direction, format B5 as Text and enter 2023-02-01-Leap. In B6, enter =XLOOKUP(B5,Calendar[lunar_key],Calendar[gregorian_iso],"Lunar date not found",0). It returns 2023-03-22. Change Leap to Regular and the result becomes 2023-02-20.

Use four digits for the year and two for month and day. A lunar key is YYYY-MM-DD-Regular or YYYY-MM-DD-Leap; do not drop its final word. A missing result means the key is malformed, outside the range, or an impossible lunar date. An empty input also returns the missing-date message. Keep ISO date keys as text to avoid regional date interpretation and Excel’s historical date-system quirks.

These formulas require Excel 2021, Excel 2024 or Microsoft 365; XLOOKUP is unavailable in Excel 2016 and 2019. Some regional Excel installations use semicolons in formulas. Download the complete Excel instructions, older-Excel formulas and method notes, or consult Microsoft’s XLOOKUP documentation.

Range and reference limits

The first supported Gregorian day is January 31, 1900, not January 1. The final lunar year continues into January 2101. Dates outside those endpoints need another reference. The Hong Kong Observatory publishes comparison tables for 1901–2100 and notes that some future month boundaries near midnight may differ by a day; this download is calculated reference data, not an official Observatory dataset.

Understand the result

Calendar years turn over at Lunar New Year, not January 1. See why its Gregorian date moves, learn how the twenty-four solar terms keep seasons in view, or start with how to read a Chinese lunar date.

Missing a month detail? Read how Chinese leap months work. Planning an observance? Use the Chinese festival calendar. For a birth date, compare Chinese nominal age and international age.