China's Lunar Calendar 2013 05-05

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs"  

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦

LEFT May 9.....................................................................................May 2 RIGHT

This is one in a never-ending series—following the movements of the calendar—in Round and Square perpetuity. It is today's date in the Chinese lunar calendar, along with basic translation and minimal interpretation. Unless you have been studying lunar calendars (and Chinese culture) for many years, you will likely find yourself asking "what does that mean?" I would caution that "it" doesn't "mean" any one thing. There are clusters of meaning, and they require patience, reflection, careful reading, and, well, a little bit of ethnographic fieldwork. The best place to start is the introduction to "Calendars and Almanacs" on this blog. I teach a semester-long course on this topic and, trust me, it takes a little bit of time to get used to the lunar calendar. Some of the material is readily accessible; some of it is impenetrable, even after many years. 

As time goes on, I will link all of the sections to lengthy background essays. This will take a while. In the meantime, take a look, read the introduction, and think about all of the questions that emerge from even a quick look at the calendar.

Section One
Solar Calendar Date
(top to bottom; right to left)  
五
日

日期星

Fifth month, fifth day

Astral Period Six

Sunday, May 5

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Section Two

Beneficent Stars 
(top to bottom, right to left)

神大鳳
在明凰

Phoenix
Great Luminosity
Spirits Attending 

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Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子

吉中中

酉己丑

凶吉凶

戌午寅

中吉吉

亥未卯

凶中吉

23:00-01:00 In-Between
01:00-03:00 Inauspicious
03:00-05:00  Auspicious
05:00-07:00 Auspicious

07:00-09:00 In-Between
09:00-11:00 Auspicious
11:00-13:00  Auspicious
13:00-15:00 In-Between

15:00-17:00 Auspicious
17:00-19:00 Inauspicious
19:00-21:00 In-Between
21:00-23:00 Inauspicious

The hours above are for Hong Kong. It is up to you if you want to recalibrate or to assume that the cyclicality of the calendar "covers" the rest of the world. This is a greater interpretive challenge than you might think.

————————————————— 

Section Four
Activities to Avoid 
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

忌

針造合
灸酒醬

Mixing Sauces
Making Liquor
Injection and Moxabustion

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 Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

廿
六

辛
未

土

昂

平

Twenty-sixth Day (third lunar month)

Cyclical day: xinwei (8/60)

Phase (element): Earth

Constellation: Pleiades (18/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Even (4/12)

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Section Six
Appropriate Activities 
(and Miscellaneous Information)
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

夏立 
十十申
八六    
分時正
宜
祭
祀
平

道
鳴蟈螻 
天朱月
罡雀煞

Establishment of Summer
At the shen hour—Begins at 16:18 o'clock

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Smoothing Roads

Little Frogs Peep
(the nineteenth of seventy-two micro-periods in the solar calendar)

Miscellaneous Information

Lunar Balefuness

Vermilion Bird

Heavenly Dipper

 ————————————————— 

 Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(right to left)
丫 州 
Bifurcation, Continent

————————————————— 

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

(Top to bottom; right to left) 

厠

廚 灶

Toilet
Kitchen, Stove