The superstitions of the Chinese concerning lucky and unlucky days are so numerous that, though they scarcely exceed, they certainly equal those which, some 300 years ago, existed amongst our own ancestors. To commence with those referring to periods rather than dates, we may note that the seventh day is reputed to possess much the same mystic properties by the Chinese as it was by the Western ancients. This may arise from its being an astronomical period—the moon’s phases being always spoken of as changing every seven days. But whatever the reason, both the seventh day and the period it begins or terminates is constantly observed in Chinese ceremonies. Thus, for example, the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-eighth and thirty-fifth days after a person’s death are specially set aside for mourning observances. The seventh day is critical in fevers; and the seventh evening of the seventh month is the great worshipping time for women. But, more than this, we find that the Chinchew edition of the Imperial Almanack invariably marks the Christian Sabbath with a character, signifying “rest or quiet,” though simply taken by the natives to mean unauspicious for work. Dr. Carstairs Douglas thus wrote on this subject in Vol. 4 p. 38 of Notes and Queries on China and Japan: “In the edition of the Imperial Almanack published at Chinchew (Tsʻuên-cheu-foo) and at Amoy and all the country round, the Christian Sabbath is invariably marked by the character mih (pronounced in Amoy bit), which means ‘secret,’ ‘quiet’ or ‘silent.’… I have not met with any heathen who can throw any light on the meaning or history of this remarkable character as it stands in the Almanack, though I have made enquiries both among the literati and at the office in Chinchew where it is published. The only trace of its meaning (excepting of course the plain and unmistakable sense of the word itself) as used by the Chinese at present, is that it is always placed in that part of the page which contains the inauspicious elements of each day, which make it unlucky for doing work. This seems clearly to prove that the original use of the phrase was to indicate ‘a day of rest.’ ” Dr. Douglas then goes on to shew that the assumption of its having [28]been introduced by the Jesuits is scarcely tenable, inasmuch as it is not found in the almanacks published at Peking, where Jesuit influence was greatest; while if its introduction were so recent it would not probably have found its way into the category of the criteria of lucky and unlucky days, which are always supposed to rest on the highest antiquity. The discussion was finally set at rest by Mr. Wylie, who explained “mih” as being a transcript of the Persian “mitra” for Sunday introduced into the Chinese Calendar through Indian astronomers.1 It is noteworthy that the day always coincides with the Christian, and not the Jewish Sabbath.

The fifteenth day of the eighth moon is a day on which a ceremony is performed by the Chinese which of all others we should least expect to find imitated amongst ourselves. Most people resident in China have seen the moon-cakes which so delight the heart of the Chinese during the eighth month of every year. These are made for an autumnal festival often described as “congratulating” or “rewarding” the moon. The moon, it is well known, represents the female principle in Chinese celestial cosmogony, and she is further supposed to be inhabited by a multitude of beautiful females; the cakes made in her honour are therefore veritable offerings to this Queen of the Heavens. Now in a part of Lancashire, on the banks of the Ribble, there exists a precisely similar custom of making cakes in honour of the “Queen of Heaven”—a relic, in all probability, of the old heathen worship which was the common fount of the two customs.

The Chinese carry out the idea of lucky days to a remarkable extent. While we now saddle only one day in the week with ill luck, they have selected a number of days in each month as uncanny for work, or even amusement.2 On [29]the 7th and other days you must not start on a journey, change your dwelling place, plant or sow, go to school for the first time, repair your house, purchase landed property, &c. The superstition as to not starting on a journey seems to be common to all nations. We know the origin of Friday being an unlucky day amongst ourselves, as being that of the Crucifixion.3 But it is evident, that an older superstition is the basis of the tradition, and a thorough investigation would probably give us some common starting point for both the Aryan and Mongolian families.

A book in popular circulation in Southern China called the 黃歴通書 (hwang-li-tung-shu) gives an exhaustive return of lucky and unlucky days, from which I extract the following information. It must be premised that the 365 days of the year are divided into sets of twelve days, each being under the supposed influence of a certain planet, a certain zodiacal sign,4 a certain terrestrial element and one of the twenty-eight “lunar mansions.” There is a further series of twelve terms, expressing the lucky or unlucky characters of given days [30]which in the eyes of the people embody the result total of the astrological bearings of any given day. They are thus arranged and named, though it does not follow that the terms will in any given month agree with the dates here stated:—

The foregoing table shews the practical application of this system.

Thus it may happen that in a given month the 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 18th, 23rd, and 30th days of a month are very unlucky.

The 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 17th, 22nd, 24th, 26th, 27th and 29th are neither lucky nor unlucky. [31]

The 9th and 21st are rather lucky; while the 1st, 8th, 13th, 20th and 25th are very lucky.

From the explanations affixed we learn that the 6th, 18th and 30th of the month shewn, though unlucky in other respects, are lucky for hunting and fishing, calling in a doctor, or pulling down a house. The character 破 pʻo means “to rend,” “break,” or “take by storm.” The 7th and 19th again, to which the character 危 wei, signifying “danger,” is prefixed are not quite so unlucky as the 6th, 10th, 18th, 22nd and 30th. The 11th and 23rd, unlucky for general purposes, are particularly so to white ants and other vermin, as those days are lucky for their destruction, filling up holes, &c., the character given 閉 pi meaning to “shut,” “close,” or “obstruct.” The 2nd, 3rd, 14th, 15th, 26th and 27th are good for meeting friends, and (as well as the 9th and 21st) are peculiarly suitable for taking a baby out for its first airing.5 On the 5th, 17th and 29th one can cut wood, hunt, fish, and, if you find them, catch wild animals. Not long since a party of gentlemen resident in Hongkong went over to the mainland to look for a tiger which was reported to have visited the neighbourhood of Deep Bay, but as they neglected to choose a “lucky” day their success (as the natives observed) was not remarkable. One is hardly prepared to find the 12th and 24th, noted as “neither lucky nor unlucky,” recommended as propitious days for worshipping at the temples, making proposals of marriage and moving house. “Cutting out clothes,” which is perhaps not a very interesting occupation at any time, is also recommended on these dates.

The 10th and 22nd in the month above given do not carry an invariably lucky status with them, it depending very much upon the month in which they occur. They are, however, always propitious for hunting and fishing. The 9th and 21st, in addition to being, as above noted, good for babies, are fortunate for building, cutting wood, seeing friends, proposing in marriage, marrying, and making and mending drains—a sufficiently incongruous selection of employments. Finally upon the 1st, 4th, 8th, 13th, 16th, 20th, 25th and 28th, anything can be done, while the 8th and 20th are the luckiest days of all.

But New Year’s day is for certain things the day of luck. According to Chinese belief you may on this date, in almost any year, present religious offerings or vows to heaven, put on full dress, fine caps, and elegant attire; at noontide one should “sit with one’s face to the south;” may make matrimonial matches, pay calls, get married, set out on a journey, order new clothes, commence repairs to a house, lay foundations, or raise up the framework of it; set sail, enter into business contracts, carry on commerce, collect accounts, pound, grind, plant, sow, &c. Nor are other superstitions connected with this auspicious day wanting. Like our own old women in the more remote country districts, the Chinese attach considerable importance to the “first-foot” or person first seen after the New Year has set in. A fair man is a lucky first-foot in the North, while a woman is peculiarly unlucky. In China a Buddhist Priest is regarded as the most ill-foreboding mortal it is possible to set eyes on as a first-foot. Another [32]similarity is to be found in the common superstition that the first words heard in the year will affect the fortune of the hearer for the coming twelve months. In Lincolnshire they arrange with the “first foot” to repeat a lucky rhyme.6 In China the women go out secretly and listen to persons talking in the street. The first sentence heard is held to contain a prediction, good or bad, of the listener’s luck for the ensuing year.

Another curious coincidence between Chinese and British belief is afforded in the fact that the former people have a sort of “St. Swithin’s Day.”7 Our own popular rhyme is sufficiently well known

and I need not more particularly allude to the legend concerning him—how the violation of his grave was followed by the “40 days rain.” A correspondent of the Shanghai Courier and China Gazette thus writes on the 5th March 1875:—“The first prediction as to the fortunes of the New Year rested on the state of the weather on the first day of spring, which coincided with our February the 3rd. ‘Heaven grant that it may not rain a drop to-morrow,’ said a boatman to me on the evening of February 2nd. ‘If it does,’ he continued, ‘the crops will be below average for a certainty; and the price of rice will go up.’ ‘Why so?’ I asked. ‘Don’t you know,’ he replied, ‘that if it rains on “lih chʻing,”’ (the first day of spring) ‘it will rain more or less for forty days afterwards.’ A curious coincidence this with our St. Swithin’s Day; and it is observable that the Chinese prophets, as well as the authors of the memorial prophecies of the irate Saint Swithin, make their predictions sufficiently elastic to save their credit—‘more or less for forty days.’ ” It is noteworthy that the Chinese prediction is seldom verified, and that our own popular prediction is almost equally sure to be false, special observations taken at Greenwich for twenty years having shewn that rain fell in the largest number of days when St. Swithin’s Day was dry! With amusing agreement there were more wet days than dry ones following the recent 3rd February in China, although that day was distinguished by “a bright sun and a cloudless sky!” Weather predictions in either country are evidently of equal value.8 The Hakkas (and also many Puntis) believe that if in the night of the 15th day of the 8th month (mid-autumn) there are clouds obscuring the moon before midnight, it is a sign that oil and salt will become very dear. If, however, there are clouds obscuring the moon after midnight, the price of rice will, it is supposed, undergo a similar change. [33]