China's Lunar Calendar 2018 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-solar (or "luni-solar" calendar; I call it the "lunar" calendar in order to distinguish it from the kinds of calendars most Westerners use. It has a basic translation and minimal interpretation. Unless you have been studying 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. You will likely find that several of the translations seem quite "fanciful" in English. I am simply trying to convey that they also sound fairly fanciful in Chinese.

Section One

Solar Calendar Date
五
日

一期星

Third Month, Fifth Day 
Moday, March 5

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

解月歲
神德馬

Generational Horse
Lunar Virtue
Releasing Spirits

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
凶凶吉
酉己丑
吉吉吉
戌午寅

吉中凶
亥未卯
吉吉中

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

07:00-09:00 Inauspicious
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 Auspicious
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
安作修
牀灶廚

Kitchen Repairs
Stove Work
Positioning Beds

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
八
丙

申

火
畢
破

Eighteenth Day (First Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: bingshen (33/60)

Phase (element): Fire
Constellation: Net (19/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Destroy (7/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

蟄驚
二二子
十十初
八三    
分時    

————
宜

掃求祭
社醫祀
破治沐
屋病浴
華始桃
下債月
兀不破

————

Waking of Insects
At the beginning of the zi hour; 23:28 o'clock
(the third of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the agricultural calendar) 

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Bubbling and Bathing
Seeking Physicians
Treating Illness
Sweeping Rooms
Smashing Structures

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

Baleful Astral Influences

Lunar Destruction
Debt Not
Lower Amputee

 
Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars
白 鬼

White, Ghost
———— 

Section Eight 
Miscellaneous Activities

廚

爐 灶

Kitchen

Furnace, Stove