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ADVENTURES IN ASIA WITH LADYB, LAOLAO AND GONGGONG
Story #25: all the fascinating details in 365-day, tear-a-page Chinese wall calendars. Here’s yours for your birthday!
Puli Town (our home), Taiwan, China.
This is going out today at the post office!
Dear Grandaughter Mila,
Enclosed in your envelope is the Taiwanese calendar page for your third birthday, 06/25/2025. 365-day, tear-a-page wall calendars in China are extremely popular. There are many different kinds. In fact, this one is different than the one that I used to get in Mainland China. Here is a photo of a Mainland calendar page I used to write a big article on Chinese calendars, 2016 Year of the Fire Monkey. It is choker-block full of information,
Chinese Lunar and Agricultural Calendars Explained-A China Rising Radio Sinoland Cultural Special Edition
Chinese calendars are fun because they have so much information packed into each page. How is that? The Chinese use three calendars at once: agricultural, lunar and starting in the 20th century, the civil (international) one. Chinese people, everywhere you go, are much closer to calendars and their events in daily life than Westerners are, and it has been a continuous timeline for 5,000 years. Let’s get started. It’s a lot of fun. I added some numbered arrows so you can follow,
In the upper right-hand corner, you can see the full civil month of June. Below that you can see “6” for June and “25”, for your birthday date.
Next, take a look at Arrow Number One. In addition to the year 2025, there is another year, “114”. Where does that come from? This involves some interesting 20th century history. The last imperial dynasty, the Qing, fell in 1912 and the Republic of China was born. Throughout Chinese history, each succeeding emperor started a new calendar to commemorate the occasion and to symbolically usher in a promising era. Sun Yat-Sen was the first president of Republican China. Like emperors of yesterday, Sun announced that the 13th day of 11th month of the 4,609th year of the Yellow Emperor’s reign (corresponding to 1 January 1912) to be the first year of the Republic of China. Thus, Year Two is 1913, Year Three is 1914, etc.
I was born in 1954, which is the Republic Year 43 (1954-1911). You were born in 2022, thus you were born in Year 111 (2022-1911). That’s why 2025 is Year 114. The government, banks and other administrative organs all use the Republic calendar. Laolao and I have memorized our Republic birthyears, 43 and 45. Online, there is a converter to be sure (https://www.calendar-converter.com/minguo/ – minguo means “republic” in Chinese).
There are a number of other cultures that have their own extant calendars: Islam, Orthodox and Coptic Christians, Iran, Thailand, India and Astronomy, not to mention historical ones (Mayan, French Revolution, Byzantine, etc.).
Arrow Number Two is the name of this Year of the Snake, in the Chinese calendar’s sixty-year cycle. There’s twelve zodiac animals and Five Elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water. Twelve times five equals 60. You are a Water Tiger, your mother is a Water Monkey, your father is a Metal Ram, your Grandmother Maflor and Laolao are Fire Monkeys, Aunt Chara is a Fire Rat, I’m a Wood Horse and 2025 is the Wood Snake! WHEW! It gets even more complex, since there are three consecutive 60-year cycles, equaling 180 years. Believe it or not, this grand cycle is called Purple White Flying Stars (!) and last year, we entered the last period of the current 180-year cycle. You will be a 21-year-old young lady when it finishes in 2043.
This is only scratching the surface. The Chinese calendar has layers of Fengshui, Astrology, the I Ching, Numerology and more, and they all interrelate.
Arrow Number Three, in blue Chinese characters is 25 June’s date in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. It happens to be the first day of the sixth month.
Arrow Number Four, below the Chinese lunar date, with the little pink square in the lower left-hand corner, that whole line is from the Chinese Agricultural Calendar. Like many Western almanacs, each day offers recommendations for planting, growing and harvesting. American Benjamin Franklin published his very famous Poor Richard’s Almanack in the 18th century, which offered agricultural tips too.
Arrow Number Five is really interesting. You can see that the day is divided into 12 two-hour periods. These are the 12 Earthly Branches, not to be confused with the 10 Heavenly Stems!
It starts at 23:00 (11PM) to 01:00 (1AM), then 1AM to 3AM, 3AM to 5AM, etc., all the way out to 21:00-23:00 (9PM-11PM). Notice each 2-hour branch has either a pink (which you love), blue or black symbol below it. Pink branches are a good time to do something important or what you need to get done. Pink branches are propitious and offer good luck. The blue branches are neutral, neither good nor bad. On your birthday, there is one dark branch, 1-3PM. These dark slots risk having bad luck, failure and are to be avoided for anything critical.
All this is really taken seriously. When we bought our old Honda Accord, our Taiwanese friends who were helping us, got out a book they buy every year, which has all 365 days with these 12 daily branches. Like an almanac, it has recommendations about what to do, what not to do, where, how, why, etcetera. They studied and discussed it for a good five minutes and then they decided, okay, We’re going to have the meeting to buy your car on this date at this time. No joking matter!
Arrow Number Six says in Chinese, It is important to remember things (matters, affairs, responsibility).
Arrow Number Seven is simply three Chinese characters that mean Wednesday. So, your birthday this year is on a Wednesday.
Arrow Number Eight is really interesting. This section has all kinds of instructions about what to do and not do on this twenty-fifth.
Obviously, Chinese look at their calendars first thing in the morning, when they wake up to see what’s going on. Section Eight is the most critical to study. The top row has pink tabs and red words. It says to pray towards the northwest to the God of Joy and the Money God towards the southeast. The best activities to do are to offer a sacrifice to the Gods or a memorial ceremony, for one’s ancestors. Sacrifices are often burning paper hell money and incense. One should also consecrate something, which might mean leaving a gift in a temple. Finally, your mother will like this: one should eat vegetarian food! Thus, this top line has positive and optimistic aspects for the day.
Below this top line, the second one has blue and green tabs. This line is all that is bad and evil. Think Yin-Yang, balance and harmony of two opposing forces.
The blue tab says to pray to the east to ward off malevolent spirits and inauspicious events, such as danger and disasters. The green tab is really fascinating. The number 47 is for 1947 Year of the Pig. The character to the right of the 47 is the zodiac character for the Ram, like your father. Since this line portends bad luck and problems, 1947 Pigs should avoid all Rams on this 25 June. To the right of the Ram there are the activities in black to avoid this day: gardening and starting at a school or a class. What a weird combination!
All the above information is on one calendar page and it’s different 365 days of the year. In addition, each day, my Taiwanese calendar has a nice photograph of someplace around the world. It includes the West, Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania – all over – with an emphasis on our beautiful Jade Mountain Island. The lighthouse on your page is Taiwanese. They also have recipes from different cultures on occasion, which Laolao gets a big kick out of, since she’s such a great cook.
Mila, I hope you enjoyed this. LadyB loved it and she sends her love to you. Be sure to check out my full explanation of Chinese calendars for all the details (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/01/31/chinese-lunar-and-agricultural-calendars-explained-in-this-year-of-the-wood-snake-2025/). It’s really fascinating, but you’ll need your parents’ help.
I’ll close out with another calendar page, which is more stylistic and has fewer details. It is from 2015 Year of the Ram, when Maflor, your Aunt Chara and I were living in Beijing. It is for the summer solstice, 22 June. You can see the good things to do in red on the left and the bad things to avoid in black on the right,
Love from Puli Town,
LadyB, Laolao and Gonggong
LadyB is looking for you across the Pacific Ocean…
###
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JEFF J. BROWN, Editor, China Rising, and Senior Editor & China Correspondent, Dispatch from Beijing, The Greanville Post
Jeff J. Brown is a geopolitical analyst, journalist, lecturer and the author of The China Trilogy. It consists of 44 Days Backpacking in China – The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass (2013); Punto Press released China Rising – Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations (2016); and BIG Red Book on China (2020). As well, he published a textbook, Doctor WriteRead’s Treasure Trove to Great English (2015). Jeff is a Senior Editor & China Correspondent for The Greanville Post, where he keeps a column, Dispatch from Beijing and is a Global Opinion Leader at 21st Century. He also writes a column for The Saker, called the Moscow-Beijing Express. Jeff writes, interviews and podcasts on his own program, China Rising Radio Sinoland, which is also available on YouTube, Stitcher Radio, iTunes, Ivoox and RUvid. Guests have included Ramsey Clark, James Bradley, Moti Nissani, Godfree Roberts, Hiroyuki Hamada, The Saker and many others. [/su_spoiler]
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