China's Lunar Calendar 2014 04-25

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦

LEFT April 28 ........................................................................................................April 20 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
廿
五

五期星

Fourth Month, Twenty-Fifth Day

Astral Period Five
Friday, April 25

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天生時歲
恩氣陽祿

Generational Emolument
Timely Yang
Engendered Vapor
Heavenly Kindness

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

酉己丑

吉中中
戌午寅
凶吉中

亥未卯

中中吉

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

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

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

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
祈祭作修
福祀灶廚

Kitchen Repairs
Stove Work
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune

—————————————————  

 Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

廿
六
丙
寅
火
牛
開

Twenty-Sixth Day (Third Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: bingyin (3/60)

Phase (element): Fire

Constellation: Ox (9/28)

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

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

宜 
出修納入
財造采學
安動裁會
牀土衣友
栽上移出
種樑徙行
置開醫訂
產倉病婚
羽其拂鳩鳴
血水債上
忌痕不兀

Appropriate Activities

Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Cutting-out Clothing
Moving Households
Physician Visits
Repairs and Building
Moving Soil
Putting-up Beams
Opening Granaries
Capital Outflow
Positioning Beds
Planting and Cultivating
Setting-up Industry

Pigeons Flap Their Wings
(the seventeenth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Upper Amputee
Debt Not
Water Scar
Blood Taboo

————
 Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars 
(right to left) 
丫 火
Bifurcation, Fire
————

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

Furnace, Stove, Kitchen