Today's Day Pillar · Ganzhi Calendar

A day pillar is the stem-and-branch pair attached to a single date. The sixty-pair cycle moves forward one step a day without a break, so once you know today's pair, the pairs ten days or two months from now follow in order. This calendar steps to the next pair at midnight on the Korean calendar date. To see what the day's upper character means in a chart, continue with Day Master.

The month pillar is the pair for the month, but the month here starts at the moment of one of the 12 sectional solar terms, such as Awakening of Insects, Grain in Ear or Cold Dew, not on the 1st. So most calendar months contain one day where the month pillar changes, and that cell shows the switch time in Korea time. The other 12 solar terms, such as Grain Full or Summer Solstice, leave the month pillar as it is. See solar term boundary and Calculation basis · solar terms.

The year pillar does not turn on January 1 or at the Lunar New Year. It turns at the moment of Start of Spring, so dates in January and early February still carry the previous year's pair. Between 1900 and 2100, Start of Spring falls on February 3, 4 or 5 in Korea time. Your zodiac animal follows the same rule; if you were born near that date, check it with Zodiac animal by Start of Spring, and read about yearly cycles under Annual Luck.

The calendar switches day pillars at midnight, but the day pillar in your chart depends on your birth time and the options used. For births in the 11 p.m. hour, the Zi hour setting can move the day pillar to the next day, and adjusting the clock to your birthplace longitude can shift births close to midnight as well. So rather than reading the pair on your birthday cell as your own day pillar, enter your birth date and time and check the result. The details are in Late and Early Zi Hour and Calculation basis · Zi hour.