China's Lunar Calendar 2016 04-30

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
5/6.................................................................................................................4/28

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
三
十

六期星

Fourth Month, Thirtieth Day

Astral Period Six
Saturday, April 30

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

時月天
德德德

Heavenly Virtue
Lunar Virtue
Timely Virtue

————

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

戌午寅
凶中凶
亥未卯 

吉吉吉

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

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

15:00-17:00 Inauspicious
17:00-19:00 In-Between
19:00-21:00 Inauspicious
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
動苫開
土蓋渠
Opening Sluices
Thatched Coverings
Moving Soil 

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

廿
四
壬
午
木
胃
滿
Twenty-Fourth Day Day (Third Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: renwu (19/60)

Phase (element): Wood
Constellation: Stomach (17/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Fullness (3/12)

————

Section Six
Appropriate Activities
and Miscellaneous Information
(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
開出祭
市行祀
安嫁祈
牀娶福
納納入
畜采學
安移會
葬徙友
桑于降勝戴
栽地小
  煞囊亡空

————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments
Moving Soil
Opening Markets
Positioning Beds
Livestock Payments
Positioning Graves   

Hoopoe Alights in Mulberry
(the eighteenth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Small Loss-Void
Earth Duffel
Disastrous Balefulness
————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars

白 人

White, Person
———— 

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Activities

倉
碓 庫 

Granary
Pestle, Storehouse