Puzzling out birthdays on the lunar calendar




San Francisco Chronicle Arts & Entertainment - Spoken Edition show

Summary: Long ago, when I asked my mother the date of her birthday, she replied, “I was born in a year with two Augusts.” How odd her answer seemed to me at the time. Why couldn’t she tell me the date listed on her driver’s license? I would come to learn that the Chinese lunar calendar has occasional leap years — such as the year she was born — which adds a month to align the calendar.