What is Giờ hoàng đạo?

What is an auspicious hour?

What is an auspicious hour and why does it have that name?

In the traditional way of reckoning time, a day is divided into twelve blocks, each two hours long, named after the twelve Earthly Branches: Tý, Sửu, Dần, Mão, Thìn, Tỵ, Ngọ, Mùi, Thân, Dậu, Tuất, Hợi. Six of these blocks are considered good and are called auspicious hours (giờ hoàng đạo), while the remaining six are inauspicious hours (giờ hắc đạo). The term hoàng đạo originally referred to the path of the sun across the sky, and later came to denote periods of time believed to be favourable.

How are the auspicious hours of a day determined?

Auspicious hours are not fixed for every day but shift according to the lunar calendar date. People commonly consult a pre-made table, or work them out from the heavenly stem and earthly branch of the day. Since each day has six good hours and six bad hours, people often choose an auspicious hour for major undertakings such as weddings, ground-breaking, travel, signing contracts and buying and selling. The usual way to look them up is to check a lunar calendar or tables that list the good and bad hours for each day.

What kinds of things are auspicious hours used for?

In daily life, auspicious hours are often mentioned when choosing the timing for important events. Weddings need a good hour for the procession to fetch the bride and for the ceremony; ground-breaking and the start of construction need a good hour to avoid risks; setting out on a journey or opening a shop is also commonly timed according to auspicious hours. Even so, choosing the hour is only one part of the custom, and the actual decision still rests on the particular circumstances of each family.

How do you distinguish auspicious hours from concepts easily confused with them?

Auspicious hours differ from auspicious days. An auspicious day is a whole day considered good, whereas auspicious hours are simply the good blocks of time within a day, even a day that may itself be a bad day. They should also be distinguished from inauspicious hours, meaning the blocks of time held to be unfavourable. In addition, the concept of the ecliptic in ancient astronomy refers to the belt along which the sun travels, and carries no good or bad meaning as it does in folk calendrical practice.

What is the reference value of auspicious hours?

Auspicious hours belong to traditional knowledge about folk calendrical practice, passed down through many generations and intended for reference. Conclusions about good and bad have not been verified by science. Readers should take them as a cultural feature, and should not treat them as the sole basis for deciding everything in life.

How do different schools understand them?

• Understanding according to folk calendrical practice: Auspicious hours are determined by the heavenly stem and earthly branch of the day; each day has six good hours and six bad hours, used to choose the timing for major undertakings.
• Understanding according to ancient astronomy: The ecliptic refers to the apparent path of the sun across the sky, a purely astronomical concept that carries no good or bad meaning.
• Understanding according to local custom: Each region may have its own tables of auspicious hours and its own ways of applying them to weddings, ground-breaking and travel, producing differences in practice.

Related articles

• How to Look Up the Auspicious Hours of the Day
• Practical guide: How to look up good and bad days and hours for weddings and ground-breaking according to folk tradition

What are the twelve time blocks according to the Earthly Branches?

Which time blocks are auspicious depends on the EARTHLY BRANCH OF THE DAY, so it changes each day and is not fixed to any particular hour. Six of the twelve blocks are auspicious, and the remaining six are inauspicious.

The figures in the table match the results of the lookup tools on Nhật Nguyệt.