Auspicious days in December 2026 by the lunar calendar: table of 31 days, hoàng đạo and hắc đạo days and trực

Which lunar dates fall in December 2026?

1 December 2026 is the 23rd day of the Tenth lunar month, 9 December is the 1st day of the Eleventh month, and 31 December is the 23rd day of the Eleventh month, in the year Bính Ngọ. The Đại Tuyết solar term begins at 9:49 on 7 December 2026, Vietnam time.

Table of the 31 days of December 2026: can chi, day deity, hoàng đạo and trực

A hoàng đạo day is one on which one of the six deities Thanh Long, Minh Đường, Kim Quỹ, Kim Đường (also called Thiên Đức), Ngọc Đường or Tư Mệnh is on duty; the other six deities, Thiên Hình, Chu Tước, Bạch Hổ, Thiên Lao, Nguyên Vũ and Câu Trần, mark hắc đạo days. The deity and trực of a day are calculated from the day's earthly branch and the month's earthly branch according to the solar terms.

Which hoàng đạo days does December 2026 have?

The month has 16 hoàng đạo days: 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 22, 24, 25, 28, 29 and 31 December. Among them, the days with the deities Thanh Long or Minh Đường are 12, 13, 24 and 25 December. 6 and 7 December both carry the trực Bình, because the Đại Tuyết solar term begins on the morning of 7 December, so that whole day already belongs to the new solar-term month.

What do the twelve trực in the table mean?

The trực are a cycle of twelve characters that rotate by day, each corresponding to a quality that almanacs use to suggest what is suitable and unsuitable:

• Kiến, Trừ, Mãn, Bình: the day that opens a cycle; a day for sweeping and clearing out the old; a day of fullness, suitable for receiving; a day that is level, suitable for matters that need both sides to agree.
• Định, Chấp, Phá, Nguy: a day of settling in place; a day of holding on; a day of breaking, the trực most often avoided, suitable only for tearing down; a day to be less adventurous.
• Thành, Thu, Khai, Bế: a day of taking shape; a day of harvest, suitable for gathering in; a day of opening, suitable for beginnings; a day of closing, suitable for endings.

In December 2026, the trực Phá falls on 10 and 22 December, both hoàng đạo days with the deity Tư Mệnh. So a day can be good by the deity cycle yet avoided by the trực cycle.

Why do printed almanacs mark the same day differently?

Each almanac chooses its own set of conventions, so the same day can be a good day in one almanac and an ordinary day in another:

• Solar-term month or lunar month: if the deity and trực are calculated by the solar-term month, they change on the day the term begins (7 December 2026); an almanac that uses the lunar month changes them on the 1st (9 December), so 7 and 8 December come out differently under the two methods.
• The accompanying star sets: besides the deity cycle and the trực cycle, many almanacs list a whole range of auspicious and inauspicious stars. The book Vạn sự bất cầu nhân lists inauspicious stars such as Thiên Cương, Độc Hỏa, Địa Phá, Thổ Cấm and Diệt Môn^[1]; which stars an almanac adds is up to its compiler.
• Whether the day boundary is at 23:00 or 00:00: this only affects matters carried out around midnight, but it is enough to make two almanacs record different can chi for the same evening.

What else should be considered when choosing a day for a major event?

For weddings, funerals and groundbreaking, many families also consider the age of the person officiating and the hour of the ceremony, not just the type of day. Thọ Mai gia lễ, when discussing the hour for carrying out a funeral, writes: "Most often one should choose the hours of Thìn, Tị and Ngọ, that is from about 8 in the morning until midday, excluding the hours that do not agree with the deceased"^[2].

No research has shown that work done on a hoàng đạo day succeeds more than on a hắc đạo day. The table above is useful for knowing what the traditional almanac records for each day; the Xem ngày theo việc tool on Nhật Nguyệt also takes into account age and the specific matter.