China's Lunar Calendar 2019 12-13

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
12/16.........................................................................................................12/09

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
三
五期星

Twelfth Month, Thirteenth Day 
Friday, December 13

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

天天母歲
醫喜倉德
Generational Exemplarity
Maternal Granary
Heavenly Happiness
Heavenly Physician

————

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
吉吉吉
酉巳丑
吉凶吉
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 Auspicious
9:00-11:00 Inauspicious
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

八
甲

申
水
鬼
成

Eighteenth Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: jiashen (21/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Ghost (23/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Completion (9/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
宜
上移出祭
樑徙行祀
作理訂祈
灶髮婚福
成醫納入
服病采學
安開嫁會
葬市娶友

符土
俱大五天
 將煞離廢休

————

Appropriate Activities

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

Soil Charm

Baleful Astral Influences

Heavenly Abandon-Cease
Five Separations
Great Balefulness
Everything General

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese should be read right to left, 
but the English translation is underneath each character)
白 地

White, Earth

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items 
(the Chinese should be read top-to-bottom, and right-to-left;
the English translation for is under the bottom characters)

爐 門 占

Furnace, Gate, Divination