| Day pillar | 乙酉 (yi you) |
|---|---|
| Heavenly stem | 乙 (yi) |
| Earthly branch | 酉 (you) |
| Day element | Wood 木 (mu) |
| Polarity | Yin |
| Month pillar | 丁酉 (ding you), governed by 白露 (bailu) |
Today's day pillar is 乙酉 (yi you), a yin Wood day in the sixty-day cycle. The month pillar is 丁酉 (ding you), governed by the term 白露 (bailu).
酉 is the rooster branch, mid autumn and the hour the light goes, the most concentrated Metal in the twelve.
酉 is Metal, yin by position, rooster by animal. Its hours are 17:00 to 19:00 and its month opens at 白露 (bailu) in early September, holding the autumn equinox.
Only one stem hides inside it, 辛 (xin, yin Metal), which makes 酉 one of the three single-stem branches alongside 子 (zi) and 卯 (mao). Nothing is mixed in, so the tradition reads it as Metal without qualification.
A 酉 day is a rooster day. The pillar 辛酉 (xin you), where the visible stem and the hidden stem are the same character, is the clearest example in the calendar of a day saying one thing twice.