China's Lunar-Solar Calendar 2021 12-31

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

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
1/2/2021..........................................................................................................................................12/26

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. 

As for interpreting the translation, 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 (almost any "it" you will see). 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. And do not assume that people from China understand the traditional calendar particularly well, either. I have encountered confusion and furrowed brows for countless items in the calendar. It can seem "remote," in other words, from the world we live in these days, and yet it is printed anew every single year.

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

                                           (top to bottom, right to left)

卅

一

五期星

Twelfth Month, Thirty-First Day

Friday, December 31

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

吉守陰天

期日德恩

Heavenly Kindness

Yin Exemplarity

Protected Days

Auspicious Time-Slice

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

吉吉吉

酉巳丑

吉凶吉

戌午寅

吉凶中

亥未卯

中凶吉

23:00-1:00 Auspicious

1:00-3:00 Auspicious

3:00-5:00 In-Between

5:00-7:00 Auspicious

7:00-9:00 Auspicious

9:00-11:00  Auspicious

11:00-13:00 Inauspicious

13:00-15:00 Inauspicious

15:00-17:00 Auspicious

17:00-19:00 Auspicious

19:00-21:00 Auspicious

21:00-23:00 In-Between

————

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

忌
行成除詞

喪服靈訟

Lawsuits and Litigation

Exorcising Spirits

Completing Clothing

Mourning Visits

————

Section Five 
Cosmological Information

廿

八

癸

丑

土

婁

除

Twenty-Eighth Day (Eleventh Lunar Month)

Cyclical Day: guichou (50/60)

Phase (element): Wood
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Mound (16/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Discard (2/12)

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information

(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

宜

動理出祭

土髮行祀

上移嫁祈

樑徙娶福

修開納求

倉市采嗣

納修裁會

畜造衣友

動泉水

陰復吧三

將日專喪

Appropriate Activities

Venerating Ancestors

Inquiring-into Fortune

Seeking Inheritance

Meeting Friends

Going Out (and about)

Marriage Alliances

Grain Payments

Cutting-out Clothing

Patterning Hair (Haircuts and Styling)

Moving Residences

Opening Markets

Repairing and Constructing

Moving Soil

Raising Beams

Repairing Granaries

Livestock Payments

Springwaters Move

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

Baleful Astral Influences

Three Mournings

Eight Specialties

Returning Days

Yin General

————

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese should be read right to left）

丫 人

Bifurcation, Person

————

Section Eight

Miscellaneous Items

厠 牀 房

Toilet, Bed, Edifice