China's Lunar Calendar 2015 01-15

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/19..........................................................................................................................1/11

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
十
五

四期星

First Month, Fifteenth Day

Astral Period Four
Thursday, January 15

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

月民
恩日

Peopled Days
Lunar Kindness

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Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
中中凶
酉己丑

凶吉中

戌午寅
吉吉吉
亥未卯
中凶吉

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

07:00-09:00 In-Between
9:00-11:00 Auspicious
11:00-13:00 Auspicious
13:00-15:00 Inauspicious

15:00-17:00 In-Between
17:00-19:00 Inauspicious
19:00-21:00 Auspicious
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
穿合
井醬
Mixing Sauces

Boring Wells

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Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

廿
五
辛
卯

木

井
滿

Twenty-Fifth Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: xinmao (28/60)

Phase (element): Wood

Constellation: Well (22/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Fullness (3/12)

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

宜

開祭
市祀
作出
灶行
安嫁
葬娶
雊雉
劫五孤上
煞虛辰兀

————
Appropriate Activities 
Venerating Ancestors
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Opening Markets
Stove Work
Positioning Graves

Pheasants Crow
(the sixty-ninth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Upper Amputee
Orphan Dawn
Five Voids
Plundered Balefulness

Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars 
(right to left) 
丫
Bifurcation

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous

廚
門 灶

Kitchen
Gate, Stove