China's Lunar Calendar 2015 02-24

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦
3/1.................................................................................................................2/22

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
廿
四

二期星

Second Month, Twenty-Fourth Day

Astral Period Two
Tuesday, February 24

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Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

合月麒
日德麟

Unicorn
Lunar Virtue
Linked Days

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

凶吉凶

戌午寅
中吉吉
亥未卯
中中吉

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

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

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

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
田造合
獵酒醬
Mixing Sauces
Making Liquor
Field Venery

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Section Five 
Cosmological Information 

初
六
辛
未
土

尾
執

Sixth Day (First Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: xinwei (8/60)

Phase (element): Earth

Constellation: Tail (6/28)

"Day Personality" Cycle: Grasp (6/12)

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

宜
動嫁祭
土娶祀
上納祈
樑采福
安移會
牀徙友
安修出
葬灶行
北雁侯
陽小大
 將耗亡空

————
Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors
Inquiring-into Fortune
Meeting Friends

Going Out (and about)

Marriage Alliances

Grain Payments

Moving Households

Repairing and Building

Moving Soil

Putting-up Beams

Positioning Beds

Positioning Graves

Wild Geese Head North

(the fifth of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the agricultural calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Great Loss-Void
Small Squander
Yang General

Section Seven

Inauspicious Stars 
(right to left) 
白 山
White, Mountain

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous

廚
厠 灶

Kitchen
Toilet, Stove