China's Lunar Calendar 2018 12-18

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
12/19...........................................................................................................12/11

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-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
十
八

二期星

Twelfth Month, Eighteenth Day  
Tuesday, December 18

————
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

月天天歲
恩醫喜馬

Generational Equinity
Heavenly Happiness
Heavenly Physician
Lunar Kindness

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
吉凶吉
酉巳丑 
吉吉吉
戌午寅
中凶凶

亥未卯
中吉中

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 Inauspicious
13:00-15:00 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 Auspicious

17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 In-Between
21:00-23:00 In-Between

 ————

Section Four 
Activities to Avoid  
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

忌
動安出開
土牀財倉

Opening Granaries
Capital Outflow
Positioning Beds
Moving Soil

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
二
甲
申
水
翌
成

Twelfth Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: jiashen (21/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Wings (27/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)

宜

上理出祭
樑髮行祀
醞醫嫁祈
釀病娶福
作開納入
灶市采學
安交移會
葬易徙友
星長
俱大土上
將煞符兀

 ————

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Entering Study
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Marriage Alliances
Grain Payments 
Moving Residences
Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)
Physician Treatments
Opening Markets
Trade and Commerce
Raising Beams
Fermenting Liquor
Stove Work
Positioning Graves

Long Star

Baleful Asterisms

Upper Amputee
Soil Charm
Great Balefulness
Everything General

 ————

白 地

White, Earth
 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Activities
爐 門 占