The Chinese pregnancy calendar is used to predict the gender of your child. It is based on inputting the mother's age and the month your baby was conceived. Some consider it to be 99 percent accurate, though most reports say it yields correct results only half of the time. Basically it's a fun game to play, especially if you are waiting until birth to discover your baby's gender.
The Chinese pregnancy calendar was found in a tomb near Beijing and is currently at the Institute of Science in Beijing. There is a catch to the Chinese pregnancy calendar though; the numbers you enter must subscribe to the ancient Chinese calendar, based on lunar and solar cycles (making it a lunisolar calendar). The western calendar is based on solar cycles.
The following will help you use a Chinese pregnancy calendar.
- Find a Chinese pregnancy calendar on the web or in a book. The calendar can be found on many websites. However, many of the websites that allow you to enter in your age and the conception month don't tell you the numbers must be based on the Chinese calendar, which is different from the Western calendar.
- Note your age. According to the Chinese, you are already one year old the day you were born, which means you have to add one year onto your western age to get your Chinese age. Depending on the date of Chinese New Year, you may have to add two years onto your western age. This is a complex and confusing idea, since the Chinese New Year is held on different days each year (like Easter or Thanksgiving). A website that converts your western age to a Chinese age (link included) may be your best bet.
- Note your baby's conception month. Again, your baby's conception month is based on the Chinese calendar, not the western calendar. Trying to compare the Western calendar with the Chinese calendar is very confusing and there's a lot of misconceptions about how they compare. Perhaps the most confusing aspect of the Chinese calendar is its use of leap years (when an extra, "intercalary" month is added to keep the lunisolar calendar more consistent with the solar calendar). If you really want to know more about the Chinese calendar as compared to the Western calendar, I've included two links that may help you. The best way to find your baby's conception month is to use a conversion chart or a website that will convert months for you (link to the right).
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