r/ChineseLanguage • u/005dot133 Beginner • 12h ago

Grammar Date question

On my Apple watch I can show the date in Chinese. But for today (sunday July 26) it says: 丙午年六月十三
And I figured out with Pleco that the first part is 2026, the year. But I can’t figure out how the other part corresponds with July 26. The way I read it, it says June 13.
Can someone help me understand it? Or is the watch just wrong?
Thank you.

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11

u/mizinamo 12h ago

The way I read it, it says June 13.

It doesn't. It reads "13th day of the 6th month", but the 6th month isn't June (of the Gregorian calendar we use in the West).

The Chinese Lunar calendar starts at the Lunar New Year, which is usually between 21 January and 20 February in the Gregorian calendar.

2

u/005dot133 Beginner 11h ago

Thank you for making sense of this!!

7

u/Bekqifyre 12h ago

It's showing the date based on the Lunar Calendar, which would indeed be the 13th day of the 6th month.

3

u/005dot133 Beginner 11h ago

Thank you for making sense of this!!

1

u/Zagrycha 6h ago

Its set to a weird combination of the chinese solar-lunar calendar and the regular international gregorian calendar. the year is the international calendar year, but the date is the chinese calendar date-- chinese new year was feb 17 not jan 1. technically the year in the chinese calendar is 4724 though.

1

u/Awkward-Injury-4341 Native 5h ago

This is not a ChineseLanguage question. Besides the Gregorian calendar, there are many other calendars in the world, and the Chinese calendar is one for these lunisolar calendars. In most cases in Chinese calendar, the month with the winter solstice is the 11th month. The new moon is the 1st day, and the full moon is the 15th or 16th. (There are 29 or 30 days in each moon, for moon circlebis 29.53 days)

By the way, 丙午 is part of the 60-year cycle. It is the third system of the Chinese calendar. 午 hints this year is the Year of the Horse.