✦ zenith calendar · the daoist almanac
the three primes and the deity birthdays in one quiet layer of your sky, each one explained in its own tradition's words.
daoist is one of the holiday almanacs that come with zenith calendar. it holds organized daoism: the three primes and the deity birthdays kept with temple rites. its own page says so first, so nobody mistakes it for the festivals families keep at home, which are in taoist.
its dates come from published tables, 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.
lunisolar · the chinese lunar months
the lower origin
the 15th day of the 10th lunar month
the birthday of shuiguan, the official of water, who lifts misfortune: the last of the three primes.
temples hold rites to the official of water, and people pray for trouble to be taken from them as the year draws to its close.
yuhuang dadi · tian gong, the lord of heaven
the 9th day of the 1st lunar month
the holy birthday of the jade emperor, lord of all the heavens and highest of the gods who govern heaven, earth and humankind.
daoist temples hold a great offering to heaven on his day, and people come to burn incense and ask for luck and long life.
the upper origin
the 15th day of the 1st lunar month
the birthday of tianguan, the official of heaven, who grants blessing: the first of the three primes, on the night of the lantern festival.
daoist temples hold rites for tianguan and people burn incense and pray that the year will go well; lanterns are lit, and families eat sweet round rice balls together.
taishang laojun · the supreme venerable lord
the 15th day of the 2nd lunar month
the holy birthday of taishang laojun, who as laozi gave the world the daodejing.
daoist temples hold rites for the venerable lord, chant his scriptures and offer incense, and the faithful come to bow before him.
zenith calendar draws the year as an orbit round the sun. lit, daoist puts its days on their dates on that ring, in pale gold. its mark is ☯, the taijitu.
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.
daoist 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.
daoist 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
daoist 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.
daoist is waiting in the app, and the rest of the sky comes with it.
daoist (temple days) ·
The Jade Emperor's birthday falls on 14 February 2027, the ninth day of the first lunar month. In Hokkien homes he is Tian Gong, the lord of heaven.
Laozi's birthday, the holy birthday of Taishang Laojun, falls on 22 March 2027, the fifteenth day of the second lunar month.
Shangyuan, zhongyuan and xiayuan: the birthdays of the three officials of heaven, earth and water, on the fifteenth of the first, seventh and tenth lunar months. In 2026, xiayuan falls on 23 November.
Shangyuan, the birthday of Tianguan, the official of heaven, falls on 20 February 2027, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the same night as the lantern festival.
Zenith Calendar for Android comes with an almanac called daoist: the three primes and the deity birthdays kept with temple rites, drawn on the ring of your year beside your own days. Turning it on costs nothing.
Daoist is organized Daoism's temple days. Taoist is Chinese folk practice: the festivals families keep. China is the People's Republic's official days off. They are separate almanacs, so you light the one you keep.
The deity days are ordinary Chinese lunar dates, so they are read from the same published table as the taoist almanac's festivals, not worked out on your phone.