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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 New Year's Day one year is added to the person's age. In other words, the first year of life is counted as one instead of zero. Since age is incremented on the beginning of lichun, which is the first solar term of the 23 solar terms rather than on a birthday, people may be one or two years older in Asian reckoning than in the modern age system.
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Variations in date for change of age
In China, the age changes on the lichun. The current age reckoning system in use in South Korea is based on the Gregorian Calendar, though originally Koreans also followed the lichun as the beginning of the year and also the date for change of age.
In Eastern 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, New Year's Day 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.
Chinese
In either the traditional or modern age system, the word sui (traditional Chinese: 歲; simplified Chinese: 岁; pinyin: suì), meaning "years of age", is used for age counting. When a person's age is given in a publication, it is often specified whether that is his or her traditional age, "virtual age" (traditional Chinese: 虛歲; simplified Chinese: 虚岁; pinyin: xūsuì) based on the East Asian reckoning system, or modern age, "round age" (traditional Chinese: 周歲; simplified Chinese: 周岁; pinyin: zhōusùi) or "solid age" (traditional Chinese: 實歲; simplified Chinese: 实岁; pinyin: shísùi) based on the Gregorian calendar. Of the three, only 周歲/周岁 zhōusuì "round age" may be used as a count word.
When a child has survived one month of life (29 days if lunar month reckoning) a mun yuet (Chinese: 滿月; pinyin: mǎnyuè) celebration can be observed in which duck or chicken eggs dyed red are distributed to guests to signify fertility.
Japanese
Japanese uses the word sai (歳 or 才) as a counter word for both the traditional and modern age system.
The traditional system of age reckoning, or kazoedoshi (数え年), was rendered obsolete by law in 1902 when Japan officially adopted the modern age system, known in Japanese as man nenrei (満年齢). However, the traditional system was still commonly used, so in 1950 another law was established to encourage people to use the modern age system.
Today the traditional system is mainly used by the elderly and in rural areas. Elsewhere its use is limited to traditional ceremonies, divinations, and obituaries.
Korean
Koreans generally refer to their age in units called sal (살), using Korean numerals in ordinal form. Thus, a person is one sal ("han sal", 한살) during the first calendar year of life, and ten sal during the tenth calendar year.
The 100th-day anniversary of a baby is called baegil (백일), which literally means "a hundred days" in Korean, and is given a special celebration, marking the survival of what was once a period of high infant mortality. The first anniversary of birth named dol (돌) is likewise celebrated, and given even greater significance. Koreans celebrate their birthdays, even though every Korean gains one 'sal' on New Year's Day. Because the first year comes at birth and the second on the first day of the New Year, children born, for example, on December 29 will reach two years of age on the New Year's Day, when they are only days old in western reckoning. Hence, everyone born on the same calendar year effectively has the same age and can easily be calculated by the formula: Age = Current Year - Birth Year + 1
In modern Korea the traditional system is most often used. The international age system is referred to as "man-nai" (만나이) in which "man" (만) means "full" or "actual", and "nai" (나이) meaning "age". For example, man yeol sal means "full ten years", or "ten years old" in English. The Korean word dol means "years elapsed", identical to the English "years old", but is only used to refer to the first few birthdays. Cheotdol or simply dol refers to the first Western-equivalent birthday, dudol refers to the second, and so on.
The Korean Birthday Celebrations by the lunar calendar is called eumnyeok saeng-il (음력 생일, 陰曆生日) and yangnyeok saeng-il (양력 생일, 陽曆生日) is the birthday by Gregorian calendar.
For official government uses, documents, and legal procedures, a chronological age system is used akin to the system used in Western countries. Regulations regarding age limits on beginning school, as well as the age of consent, are all based on a chronological system (man-nai). The age limit for tobacco, alcohol use are after January 1 of the year one's age turns to 19.
Vietnamese
This traditional system is widely used in modern Vietnam. In conversations, speakers would distinguish the traditional age ("tuổi ta" - our age or "tuổi mụ" - age (including) prebirth) and the Western age ("tuổi Tây" - Western age). In official documents, only the Western system is used.