✦ zenith calendar · the buddhist (korea) almanac
the korean lunar year's buddhist days in one quiet layer of your sky, each one explained in its own tradition's words.
buddhist (korea) is one of the holiday almanacs that come with zenith calendar. it holds the buddhist days of the jogye order of korean buddhism, by the korean lunar calendar.
its western dates are copied from published tables of the korean lunar calendar, not worked out on your phone. tap a day and read three short paragraphs: what it is, where it comes from, and how it is kept.
lunar · the korean lunar months
the 8th day of the 12th lunar month
the day the buddha attained enlightenment: as the night turned to dawn and the morning star shone, he became the buddha.
on the night before, temples across korea keep an all-night practice into the day, sitting in meditation, bowing, chanting and reading the sutras. a dharma service marks the day.
the 15th day of the 2nd lunar month
the day the buddha passed into parinirvana, the final peace. it closes the week of devotion that began on chulga jaeil.
temples hold dharma services to remember his passing and his last teaching, and the week of devotion ends in prayer and strong practice, often through the night.
the day the buddha came
the 8th day of the 4th lunar month
the birth of shakyamuni buddha, the greatest day of the korean buddhist year and a public holiday in korea.
temples hang lotus lanterns through the grounds and the streets, and each person pours water or sweet tea over a small image of the infant buddha. before the day, seoul holds yeondeunghoe, the lantern festival, with a lantern parade to jogyesa.
the 15th day of the 7th lunar month
a day of offering for parents and ancestors, living and gone, and the last day of the monks' and nuns' summer retreat.
temples hold the baekjung prayer in the weeks before, with a memorial rite each week, and families place memorial tablets with their ancestors' names. on the day the rite closes with offerings and sutra chanting.
zenith calendar draws the year as an orbit round the sun. lit, buddhist (korea) puts its days on their dates on that ring, in lilac, the colour every buddhist reckoning wears. its mark is 불, the first syllable of "buddha" in korean.
each day carries three short paragraphs in its notes: what it is, where it comes from as its own tradition tells it, and how it is kept.
buddhist (korea) arrives locked, so nothing in it changes by accident. the lock guards your hand, not your eye: you can still read it, shine it or eclipse it. one tap unlocks it, and then it is yours to rename, recolour or add to.
tap its chip in the legend to eclipse it (kept, but not drawn) and tap again to bring it back. nothing is deleted either way.
buddhist (korea) shares one sky with your own commitments. like every almanac that comes with the app, it never counts toward the almanacs you can make for free, and it lives on your phone: zenith calendar has no server of its own.
✦ zenith calendar · the sky around it
buddhist (korea) is a single layer. beneath it is a whole calendar drawn as the sky, your year an orbit round the sun, and every part of it answers your touch.
the sun stands at the centre and the year rings round it, with today's earth riding at today's place, its small moon beside it. tap the ring anywhere else and a faint ghost earth waits on that day.
drag along the ring and the days pass under your finger, the big date and the day's list following as you go. lift, and the day you stopped on stays picked.
tap the small moon beside today's earth and you dive into the week. the moon above shows its phase, named underneath; swipe the dates and each week brings its own.
tap the sun and the ring tips on its edge into a ladder of years. in the week, pull the moon firmly down and the month opens, the moon resting half off its foot.
zenith calendar has no server of its own. tap the gear and switch on "nothing comes in" or "nothing leaves this phone"; lift them, and every almanac is back exactly as it was.
buddhist (korea) is waiting in the app, and the rest of the sky comes with it.
buddhist (korea) · buddhist reckonings ·
Bucheonim osin nal, the day the Buddha came, falls on 13 May 2027, the eighth day of the fourth lunar month. In 2026 it fell on 24 May.
Baekjung, or uranbunjeol, falls on 16 August 2027, the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month. It is a day of offering for parents and ancestors, and the end of the summer retreat.
Seongdo jaeil is the day the Buddha attained enlightenment, the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. In 2027 it falls on 15 January, and temples keep an all-night practice on the night before.
Temples hang lotus lanterns through their grounds and the streets, and people pour water or sweet tea over a small image of the infant Buddha. Before the day, Seoul holds yeondeunghoe, the lantern festival.
Zenith Calendar for Android comes with an almanac called buddhist (korea): the days of Korean Buddhism by the Korean lunar calendar, drawn on the ring of your year beside your own days. Turning it on costs nothing.
Buddhist (korea) keeps the days of Korean Buddhism by the Korean lunar calendar. Mahayana (china) keeps the Chinese Mahayana days by the Chinese lunar calendar, so a shared lunar day can fall on a different date. They are separate almanacs, so you light the one you keep.