Chinese Almanac Lookup
Query
Auspicious Day Finder
| Date | Lunar date | Ganzhi day | Jianchu star | Recommended |
|---|
Terminology notes
Clash: the day branch conflicts with one animal, traditionally a sign for that animal sign to be careful.
Sha: the unfavourable direction of the day, traditionally avoided when moving or breaking ground.
Jianchu: twelve presiding stars rotating day by day, from which the activity lists are derived.
Peng Zu taboos: short traditional verses attached to ganzhi days as reminders.
Activities: editions differ slightly; this follows the conventional mapping from the jianchu star.
Pick a date and look up to see the almanac here
Recommended
Discouraged
Peng Zu taboo
| Solar term | Date | Days from today |
|---|
| Lunar date | Ganzhi day | Jianchu star | Recommended |
|---|
How to Use
📖 About This Tool
Moving house, opening a shop, setting a wedding date or breaking ground: when an elder asks whether the day is a good one, most people cannot answer. The traditional almanac exists to answer exactly that. For any given day it lists what is favourable, what is not, which zodiac animal the day clashes with and which deity presides, and families have consulted it for centuries before settling important plans.
This tool moves that lookup online and shows its working. Pick a date and you get the lunar date including any intercalary month, the ganzhi cycle names for year, month and day, the zodiac animal, the star sign, the solar term, the twenty-eight lunar mansion, the jianchu presiding star, and lists of recommended and discouraged activities. Nothing is asserted without a basis: ganzhi comes from a formula on the day number, solar terms from the sun ecliptic longitude, and the do and do-not lists follow the conventional mapping from the jianchu star used in popular almanacs.
The terminology is opaque if you did not grow up with it. What does it mean to clash with the dog? What is the jianchu twelve star system? What is Peng Zu hundred taboos? Short explanations sit below the result and expand on click. You are not limited to one day either: a whole month can be viewed at once, which is what you want when choosing a date.
To be clear, the almanac is folk culture. Editions disagree with one another on the details of the do and do-not lists, this tool follows the common convention, and the output is a cultural reference rather than a basis for any decision. Everything is computed locally in the browser, with no network request and nothing uploaded.
✨ Features
- Lunar conversion: lunar year, month and day with intercalary months flagged, plus ganzhi names.
- Solar terms: computed from ecliptic longitude, showing today term or days to the next.
- Do and do-not lists: derived from the jianchu star using conventional almanac mappings.
- Zodiac clash: the day animal, the clashing animal and the direction, with short explanations.
- Month view: a whole month of ganzhi and activity summaries for choosing a date.
- Terminology notes: clash, sha, jianchu and Peng Zu taboos all explained in plain words.
🚀 How to Use
- Pick a date; today is the default, and past or future dates work too.
- Press look up: the result shows the lunar date, ganzhi, zodiac, star sign and solar term.
- Scroll down for the recommended and discouraged activities.
- Expand the terminology notes if a term is unclear.
- Switch to the month view to compare days when choosing a date.
⚠️ Notes
- Folk reference: this is traditional folk culture, not a basis for decisions; treat it sensibly.
- Editions differ: almanacs disagree on details; results follow the common convention.
- Date range: 1900 to 2100 is supported; lunar data outside that range is not guaranteed.
- Solar term accuracy: computed astronomically and may differ from official times by minutes.
- Not professional advice: consult a specialist if a date really matters.