In the date-selection tradition, different matters correspond to different suitable-and-avoid entries: capping, marriage, mourning and sacrifice form one group, building and moving another, daily life and ceremonial celebrations a third. In practice the steadier order is to fix the range of possible dates first, check the weather and the people involved second, and use the almanac to choose among those days last.
The suitable-and-avoid entries of a huangli form part of the date-selection tradition, and different editions of the almanac were never consistent with one another, so a single day reading both "suitable for marriage" and "avoid marriage" is nothing unusual. The steady way to use a huangli is as a reference calendar rather than as the basis for a decision.
The local labour affairs department has given notice that marriage leave will go from 8 days to 14, expected to take effect on 1 October. The busiest person in the family, though, is the one who has to "go and look at days" — a longer holiday does not simplify the old procedure.
Marriage talk is hot in Korea again: the dating show “I Am Solo” has produced 17 married couples so far, and “remarriage” is on the search list. In traditional Korean matchmaking, there was one procedure no couple could skip — gunghap.
Spanish-speaking countries fear Tuesday the 13th, Britain and America fear Friday the 13th, and Chinese families consult the almanac for “suitable and unsuitable”. The same instinct — “not today” — lands on three different squares in three cultures.
South Korean official statistics show that in 2025 the country recorded about 240,000 marriages over the year, about 21,000 of them to a foreign spouse. Marriage in East Asia has never been only about two people — so what is this old custom of "marital compatibility" really checking?
In August this year America's Old Farmer's Almanac released its 2026–2027 winter outlook and its "first snowfall" map, while the Chinese almanac showed the first day of the eighth lunar month, just past White Dew. One uses long-term cycles to reckon weather, the other uses the sexagenary cycle to fix what is auspicious or to be avoided — yet the two "almanac cultures" are really doing the same thing.
