China's Lunar Calendar 2014 05-05

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦

LEFT May 12........................................................................................................May 4 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

一期星

Fifth Month, Fifth Day

Astral Period One
Monday, May 5

———————————————— 

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天天
醫喜

Heavenly Happiness
Heavenly Physician

—————————————————

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

酉己丑

吉吉吉
戌午寅
凶凶中

亥未卯

凶中中

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

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

15:00-17:00 In-Between
17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 Inauspicious
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
作修
灶廚

Kitchen Repairs
Stove Work

—————————————————  

 Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

初
七
丙
子
水
畢
成

Seventh Day (Fourth Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: bingzi (13/60)

Phase (element):Water

Constellation: Net (20/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)

—————————————————  

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

————
立
夏
五亥
十初
九廿
分一
   時
————
宜
祀祭
————

螻

蟈

鳴
————
楊歲
忌破

Beginning of Summer
(the seventh of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors

Little Frogs Peep
(the nineteenth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Generational Destruction
Poplar Taboo

————

 Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars 
(right to left) 
白 地
White, Land
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Information
廚
碓 灶

Kitchen
Pestle, Stove