✦ zenith calendar · the taoist almanac
chinese folk festivals in one quiet layer of your sky, each one explained in its own tradition's words.
taoist is one of the holiday almanacs that come with zenith calendar. it holds chinese folk practice: the festivals families keep at home. its own page says so first, so nobody mistakes it for the temple calendar.
its dates come from published tables, not worked out on your phone. tap a festival and read three short paragraphs: what it is, where it comes from, and how it is kept.
lunisolar · the chinese lunar months, with the solar terms
chunjie · the spring festival
the 1st day of the 1st lunar month
the spring festival, when the old year is crossed and the new one begins: the great reunion of the chinese year.
new clothes, incense for the ancestors, and visits to elders and relatives with good wishes; elders give red envelopes to the young, each region in its own way.
the clear and bright festival
a solar term, about fifteen days after the spring equinox
one of the solar terms, and the day for tending the graves of the ancestors.
families sweep the graves and offer food, incense and paper offerings; it is also a time for walks in the spring green.
duanwu
the 5th day of the 5th lunar month
a day of racing boats and wrapped rice as the summer heat comes on. it remembers qu yuan, the poet and loyal minister of chu.
dragon boats race to the beat of drums, and families wrap and eat zongzi, sticky rice folded in bamboo leaves.
zhongqiu
the full moon of the 8th lunar month
the night the moon is at its brightest and roundest: a night of family reunion under the moon.
families look at the moon together and share mooncakes, whose round shape stands for reunion; children carry lanterns.
zenith calendar draws the year as an orbit round the sun. lit, taoist puts its festivals on their days on that ring, in pale gold. its mark is 春, "spring".
each festival 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.
taoist 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.
taoist 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
taoist 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.
taoist is waiting in the app, and the rest of the sky comes with it.
taoist (folk festivals) ·
Chinese New Year falls on 6 February 2027, the first day of the first lunar month. In Zenith Calendar it sits on the ring of your year in the taoist almanac.
Qingming, the clear and bright festival, falls on 5 April 2027. It is one of the solar terms, about fifteen days after the spring equinox, and the day families tend their ancestors' graves.
The dragon boat festival, duanwu, falls on 9 June 2027, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. In 2026 it fell on 19 June.
The mid-autumn festival fell on 25 September 2026, the full moon of the eighth lunar month. In 2027 it falls on 15 September.
Zenith Calendar for Android comes with an almanac called taoist: the Chinese folk festivals families keep, drawn on the ring of your year beside your own days. Turning it on costs nothing.
Taoist is Chinese folk practice: the festivals families keep. Daoist is organized Daoism's temple days, and china is the People's Republic's official days off. They are separate almanacs, so you light the one you keep.
They are copied from published tables, not worked out on your phone. In a year with a leap month, a festival keeps the ordinary month.