China's Lunar Calendar 2014 03-31

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦

LEFT April 3 ..................................March 31.......Monthly Calendar Information...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
卅三
一月

一期星

Third Month, Thirty-first Day

Astral Period One
Monday, March 31

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

生時敬鳳
氣陽安凰

Phoenix
Reverent Calm
Temporal Yang
Engendered Vapor

—————————————————

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

吉中凶

酉己丑
凶吉吉
戌午寅
中吉吉

亥未卯

吉凶吉

23:00-01:00 Inauspicious
01:00-03:00 Auspicious
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 Inauspicious

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

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
除動造合
服土酒醬

Mixing Sauces
Making Liquor
Moving Soil
Discarding Clothing

—————————————————  

 Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

初
一
辛
丑
土
危
開

First Day (Third Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: xinchou (38/60)

Phase (element): Earth

Constellation: Danger (12/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Open (11/12)

—————————————————  

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

宜
穿醫出祭
井病行祀
置修訂祈
產造婚福
作上理入
灶樑髮學
納開移會
畜渠徙友
電始
復地長牛
喪囊星口

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Patterning Hair
Moving Households
Physician Treatments
Repairing and Buildings
Putting-up Beams
Opening Sluices
Boring Wells
Setting-up Factories
Stove Work
Livestock Payments

First Lightning
(the twelfth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Miscellaneous Information

Ox Mouth

Long Star

Earth Duffel

Return Mourning————

 Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars 
(right to left) 
白 林
White, Copse
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Information 
(Top to bottom; right to left)
厠 灶 廚

Toilet, Stove, Kitchen