Describe your favourite date... (The Imaginary, Gregorian or Lunar calendars)

I always smile at this great line in Miss Congeniality:

But what's in a date?  

My grandma had two passports, one had her Chinese age or "Imaginary age" as it is known, and the other her official age.  Having recently spoken with my aunt, and researched this area a little further, I have learned there are 3 different birthdays, and in fact, ages in Chinese tradition:

Imaginary birthday

1. You are 1 year old at the date of your birth, and you age each Chinese New Year - so if you are born on say, December 1st 2019, you would be 1 on that date, and then with Chinese New Year on January 25th 2020, you would turn 2.  That is the "imaginary age".

Gregorian/Official birthday

2. The official age is of course that which corresponds to the Gregorian (our Western) calendar.  This is on all offical documents, and it starts at 0 as in the UK.

Lunar birthday

3. The lunar age.  You may remember me talking in my last blog about eating noodles on my birthday - having spoken with my grand aunt, it is actually on the lunar birthday that traditionally noodles would be eaten.  Your lunar age is simply the corresponding date that your Gregorian date of birth falls on, as per the lunar calendar eg:

You can see my mum's lunar date written as the 
"27th day of the 2nd Chinese moon"

My Gregorian date of birth is 3rd July.  This corresponds to the 24th day of the 5th month, or moon in the lunar calendar in the year I was born...I prefer not to give my full date of birth for security reasons...I appreciate one can work it out backwards, but why make it easy!?

Dave's corresponds to the 16th day of the 10th month/moon (lunar).  As above, my mum's lunar date was 27th day of the 2nd month/moon, and  my dad's the 10th day of the 6th month/moon (lunar).  If you want to work yours out, try this link. Most people already know their Chinese zodiac animal, but for further information on the specifics, you can convert your gregorian date directly.  You lunar birthday will change each year because of the cycles of the moon - so this year, my lunar birthday would have been 14th June 2020 (which is the 24th day of the 5th month/moon in 2020).  If you're interested, after you've worked out your lunar birth date from the earlier link, you can use the lunar phases calendar here, and count forward x days from the x month (or new moon) - the month starts with the NEW not the full moon.

"The Science bit"

The lunar month is around a day per month slower than the solar calendar, and to prevent a complete lack of synchonicity a "leap month" is added every 32 or 33 months (and it simply extends the last month by a further 30 or so days...and the corresponding chinese zodiac sign doesn't change) - that is, every second or third Chinese calendar year will have 13 months.  (This will not always align with the gregorian leap year).  The one thing I will say is at least this is traditions old, it's not like NASA throwing a potential 13th star sign "Orphicus" into the mix...because, you know, that's why horoscopes aren't actually true...and it's not as if we didn't have enough to unsettle us in 2020.

Chinese zodiac

Carving of the Chinese Zodiac

I treat the Chinese zodiac in much the same way as I do my Wester horoscope.  I pay a passing interest, it's always lovely when you hear it'll be a good year - but I think that has as much to do with priming the mind to think positively, but I do like the story.

My dad started his "Father of the Bride speech" talking about how I am a Rabbit and my husband is a dragon - and although not natural partners, the rabbit can teach the dragon to channel his energy and the dragon in return teaches the rabbit about discipline.  If you think that sounds quite like us, the "real" story of the Chinese zodiac is even better.

Wedding speeches: 30th April 2017 - photo credit: Rich Page Photography

I daresay, most of you know the basic story of "The Great Race":  the Jade emperor wanted to name the months so he asked the animals to have a race...and pretty much, the Ox was winning when they got to the final stream, and the rat jumped on his head, caught a ride and jumped off to take the first month (2020 is the year of the Rat).  The rest of the animals came in as follows: 2 Ox, 3 Tiger, 4 Rabbit, 5 Dragon, 6 Snake, 7 Horse, 8 Sheep, 9 Monkey, 10 Rooster, 11 Dog, 12 Pig (there is apparently no "year of the cat" because Story 1: the rat didn't tell him the race was on and (Story 2) The Rat pushed the cat into the river and the cat didn't finish the race - hencewhy cats chase rats!  Story 3: The cat and the rabbit are interchangable because the word rabbit (mao) sounds like cat (meo).  Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, I'm the rabbit...there is no cat in the Chinese zodiac, and the waving cat is a Japanese symbol of luck rather than a Chinese one.

However, Dave at one point said "...you know there is NO way the dragon would have been beaten by the ox!"  I hadn't really thought about it, but I looked it up... and this is the addendum to the story:

The dragon was indeed in the lead that day, but as he came to the river he noticed a village on fire, so he stopped to put it out.  On his way to rejoin the race, he noticed a log floating down the river with a very wet rabbit clinging to it.  The rabbit - who had been fiercly competitive with the tiger - no longer had the energy to keep going and while hopping rocks across the river had slipped.  He'd grabbed onto a nearby log and was somewhere between the feeling of disappointment that he'd missed his chance in the race, and gratitude that he was still alive, when he felt a breeze push him safely to shore, he jumped off to claim 4th place, with, you've guessed it, the dragon, who had blown the rabbit to safety, taking 5th.

When I reflect on it, that is probably a more fitting story to how things are in the Sanderson household!

The actual story of the dragon, the rabbit and The Great Race

So we have the crafty rat, the powerful, constant Ox, the strong, dynamic tiger, the competitive - and lucky - rabbit, the noble dragon - then the snake apparently scared the horse to come in 6th and 7th, the Sheep, Monkey and Rooster joined forces and rode a raft and politely followed each other off (so rather than the "follower", "cheeky", "strutting" personalities, they perhaps teach us something very important about teamwork!!), the Dog would have been faster but got distracted by the water ("squirrel" anyone!?), and the pig had stopped off and on to eat along the way.

Nonetheless, if I am to claim my lunar birthday I will of course say it is because I am like the Queen - Dave will say it is just another excuse for me to eat noodles.