China's Lunar Calendar 2013 12-07

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦

LEFT December 14............................................................................................December 7 RIGHT

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) 
七
日
六期星

  Twelfth Month, Seventh Day

Astral Period Six
Saturday, December 7

———————————————— 
Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

要合月
安日德

Lunar Virtue
Linked Days
Coercive Calm

—————————————————

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子

中中中

酉己丑

吉吉凶
戌午寅

中凶中

亥未卯

凶吉凶

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

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

15:00-17:00 In-Between
17:00-19:00 Auspicious
19:00-21:00 In-Between
21:00-23:00 Inauspicious

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

成整理
服甲髮
Patterning Hair
Trimming Nails
Completing Clothing

————————————————— 

 Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

初
五
丁
未
水
女
危

Fifth Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingwei (44/60)

Phase (element): Water

Constellation: Woman (10/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Danger (8/12)*
*Occasionally the calendar repeats a cyclical day.

————————————————— 

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

雪大
零七辰
八時初
分       
宜

動納祭
土采祀
安交訂
牀易婚
鳴不鳥鶡
復羊月
喪口煞

Great Snow
Begins at the beginning of the chen hour—7:08 AM
(the twenty-first of twenty-four fifteen-day periods in the solar calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors

Marriage Engagements
Grain Payments
Trade and Commerce
Moving Soil
Positioning Beds

Copper Pheasant Stops Chirping
(the sixty-first of seventy-two five-day micro-periods in the solar calendar)

Miscellaneous Information  

Lunar Balefulness
Goat Mouth
Repeat Mourning

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars 
(right to left)

丫 林
Bifurcation, Copse
————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Information

(Top to bottom; right to left)

倉
厠 庫

Granary
Toilet, Storehouse