The Chinese Gender Calendar draws its elements from the lunar cycle and is a spin-off from the Chinese Lunar Calendar.
The story behind the Chinese Gender Calendar is that a Chinese scientist created the chart more than four thousand years ago. The Chinese Gender Calendar was buried in a Royal tomb near Beijing until it was discovered during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The purpose of this calendar is to predict whether a pregnancy will result in a boy child or a girl child.
The Chinese Gender Calendar draws its elements from the lunar cycle and is a spin-off from the Chinese Lunar Calendar. The lunar calendar is based on calculations that use the phases of the moon and the position of the earth with regards to its relationship to the sun. For this reason, it is actually a lunisolar calendar. In the lunar calendar, the new moon marks the beginning of a new month. The new moon refers to the totally black moon which is when the moon is in conjunction with the sun. The date of this new moon is the first day of a new month. As well, the sun is involved in the calculations. When the sun’s longitude can be divided evenly by 30, there is an equinox or a solstice. These are principal terms and help determine the number of each month as in whether it is month 1 or 2 or 3, etc.
Sooner or later, the lunar calendar has to calculate a leap year. Leap years have 13 months. What you have to do to determine a leap year is figure out how many new moons occur between the 11th month in one year and the 11th month in the next year. Some times the there are two principal terms in one month. When that happens, the month’s numbers are changed. principal term 11 is Winter Solstice and this solstice always has to take place in the 11th month. If there are 13 new moons in the period between the 11th month of one year and of the next year, a leap month is inserted. In leap years, at least one month does not contain a principal term. The first such month is the leap month. It is given the same number as the previous month and it is noted that this is a leap month.
An example of the difference between the Chinese calendar and the calendar typically used in western culture (the Gregorian calendar) is that 2007 on the western calendar translates to 4704 on the Chinese lunar calendar. 4704 runs from February 18, 2007 (Chinese New Year) to February 6, 2008. This is a total of 353 days or 11.9 moons.
To use the Chinese Gender Calendar, you need to find out the mother’s lunar age. This can be a little older than the mother’s age according to the Gregorian calendar. In order to know how old you are, a good rule of thumb is that if you were born on or between January 1 and February 20, your lunar age is the same as your Gregorian calendar age. If you were born on or between February 21 and December 31, add a year to your Gregorian age. There are also charts available online that allow you to figure out your lunar age. You also need to know the month of conception.
Armed with these two pieces of information, you can predict with 99 percent accuracy the gender of your unborn child according to experts in the field. Some people also use this to plan in advance the best month to conceive based on the desired gender of the child that you plan to conceive.
Chinese Gender Calendar (594 words)
Many thanks go to jbreid.