The day pillar for Sunday, 25 October 2026

Day pillar	壬申 (ren shen)
Heavenly stem	壬 (ren)
Earthly branch	申 (shen)
Day element	Water 水 (shui)
Polarity	Yang
Month pillar	戊戌 (wu xu), governed by 寒露 (hanlu)

Today's day pillar is 壬申 (ren shen), a yang Water day in the sixty-day cycle. The month pillar is 戊戌 (wu xu), governed by the term 寒露 (hanlu).

Why the days run in a cycle of sixty

Ten stems and twelve branches turning together produce sixty distinct pairs, and the calendar has been counting days through them without a break for a very long time.

Line the ten stems up against the twelve branches and step both forward one at a time. Because polarity has to match, yang with yang and yin with yin, only half the possible pairs can occur, and the sequence repeats after sixty steps rather than a hundred and twenty. That run is called the 甲子 (jia zi) cycle, after the pair it starts on.

The day count is the oldest continuous part of the system. It ignores months, years and leap rules entirely: day sixty is 癸亥 (gui hai), and the next day is 甲子 again. Sixty days is a little under two months, so any given pillar comes around six times a year.

That is why the same day pillar you have today will return, and why the number beside it is worth noticing. It tells you where in the run of sixty the calendar currently is.