The day pillar for Wednesday, 5 May 2027
| Day pillar | 甲申 (jia shen) |
|---|---|
| Heavenly stem | 甲 (jia) |
| Earthly branch | 申 (shen) |
| Day element | Wood 木 (mu) |
| Polarity | Yang |
| Solar term | 立夏 (lixia) |
| Month pillar | 甲辰 (jia chen), governed by 清明 (qingming) |
Today's day pillar is 甲申 (jia shen), a yang Wood day in the sixty-day cycle. Today is also the solar term 立夏 (lixia), one of the twenty-four stations of the solar year. The month pillar is 甲辰 (jia chen), governed by the term 清明 (qingming).
立夏 (lixia), summer begins
立夏 is the calendar declaring summer around the fifth of May, usually well before the weather agrees.
It is the second of the four 立 terms, the ones that set up a season. The set is 立春 (lichun), 立夏, 立秋 (liqiu) and 立冬 (lidong), and each of them starts a season a good six weeks before its hottest or coldest point.
立夏 is sectional and opens the 巳 (si) month, the snake month, the first month of summer. Its branch is Fire, so the season and the branch element line up from the start.
That early declaration is deliberate. The terms mark the arc of the sun rather than the temperature outside, and the heat lags behind the light by weeks.