China's Lunar Calendar 2016 03-05

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
3/8..............................................................................................................3/1

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
五
日

六期星

Third Month, Fifth Day

Astral Period Six
Saturday, March 5

———————————————— 

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

不六歲
將合德

Generational Virtue
Six Linkages
Not General
—————

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
吉凶吉
酉己丑
凶吉中

戌午寅
吉中凶

亥未卯
吉中吉

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

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

15:00-17:00 Auspicious
17:00-19:00 Inauspicious
19:00-21:00 Auspicious
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
開作修
市灶廚
Kitchen Repairs
Stove Work
Opening Markets

—————————————————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

廿
七
丙
戌
土
胃
危
Twenty-Seventh Day (First Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: bingxu (23/60)

Phase (element): Earth
Constellation: Stomach (17/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Danger (8/12)*
*A few times a year, a "day personality" repeats...as it does today 

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

蟄驚
四十午
十一初
四時    
 分         
————
宜

動嫁祭
土娶祀
安移出
牀徙行
華始桃
月犬債
煞口不

————
Waking of Insects
In the wu hour: 11:44 o'clock
(the third of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar)

 Appropriate Activities  
Venerating Ancestors
Going Out (and about)

Marriage Alliances

Moving Households

Moving Soil

Positioning Beds

Peach Blossoms Open
(the seventh of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Debt Not
Canine Orifice
Lunar Balefulness

 ———— 

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

丫

Bifurcation
———— 

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

廚
栖 灶 

Kitchen
Perch, Stove