The day pillar for Friday, 25 December 2026
| Day pillar | 癸酉 (gui you) |
|---|---|
| Heavenly stem | 癸 (gui) |
| Earthly branch | 酉 (you) |
| Day element | Water 水 (shui) |
| Polarity | Yin |
| Month pillar | 庚子 (geng zi), governed by 大雪 (daxue) |
Today's day pillar is 癸酉 (gui you), a yin Water day in the sixty-day cycle. The month pillar is 庚子 (geng zi), governed by the term 大雪 (daxue).
酉 (you), the tenth earthly branch
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.