In some Singapore homes there is a thick, well-thumbed little book, often with a bright cover, that comes out when the family needs to pick a good day. This is the Chinese almanac, known in Mandarin as tong shu (通书), literally the “book of everything”, and sometimes called huang li (黄历) or the farmer’s calendar. For generations it has offered guidance on auspicious dates, daily do’s and don’ts, and the rhythms of the lunar year. This guide explains what the chinese almanac is, what is inside it, and how it fits into modern Singapore, treating it as a living cultural tradition that some follow closely, some consult now and then, and others do not use at all.
What the tong shu is
The tong shu is one of the oldest continuously published reference works in the Chinese world, a yearly almanac that blends the lunar calendar with folk astrology, traditional agriculture and everyday advice. Its name is often read as tong shu, though a homophone quirk means many people call it tong sheng (通胜) instead, swapping a word that sounds like “loss” for one that sounds like “victory”, a small, charming example of the love of lucky-sounding words in Chinese culture.
At its heart, the almanac maps each day of the year with a great deal of information: the lunar date, the solar terms that mark the seasons, the day’s animal and elemental associations, and lists of activities said to be favourable or best avoided. A new edition appears each year, and you can still find printed copies in Chinatown bookshops, traditional medicine halls and provision shops, alongside app and website versions that put the same idea on a phone.
It is worth stating plainly that the almanac is heritage and custom rather than proven fact. Many families enjoy it for structure and reassurance around big events; it is not a manual for decisions that call for real expertise.
What you find inside
Opening a tong shu can feel bewildering at first, because it packs a lot into small pages. A typical entry for a single day might include the following.
- The lunar and solar dates side by side, so you can move between calendars.
- The twenty-four solar terms (jie qi), which divide the year by the sun’s position and traditionally guided planting and harvest.
- The day’s stem-branch label from the old sixty-unit cycle, plus its zodiac animal and element.
- Yi (宜), a list of activities considered suitable that day, such as weddings, moving house, opening a business or travel.
- Ji (忌), a list of activities better avoided that day.
- Extra sections that vary by edition, from charms and fortune notes to conversion tables and practical trivia.
Because the layout is dense and traditional, older family members or shopkeepers often help newcomers read it, and simplified apps now summarise a day as broadly “good” or “less good” for common activities.
Part of what makes the almanac fascinating is how much history sits inside such a small book. The solar terms alone are a beautiful piece of old sky-watching, dividing the year by the sun’s position into named periods such as the start of spring or the arrival of the rains, which once told farmers when to plant and harvest. The stem-branch cycle, pairing ten “heavenly stems” with twelve “earthly branches”, produces the sixty-year count that has ordered Chinese calendars for a very long time. You do not need to master any of this to use the almanac, but knowing it is there helps you see the tong shu for what it is: a compact record of how generations organised time, season and daily life.
How Singaporeans use it today
For families who follow it, the almanac is a planning companion for milestones rather than a daily oracle. Its most common uses are choosing dates for weddings, business openings, moving into a new home, starting renovations and, in more traditional households, matters such as ancestral rites. Some pair the almanac’s guidance with a person’s birth details, and a few consult a temple, an elder or a professional for a closer reading.
In practice, this is why certain dates in Singapore fill up quickly, from popular wedding days to auspicious mornings for collecting keys to a new flat. The almanac sits comfortably alongside the rest of Chinese folk tradition, including auspicious dates and numbers in Singapore and the character-and-luck arts of fortune telling and face reading in Singapore, and it shares the lunar framework behind the Chinese zodiac in Singapore life.
As always, the sensible frame applies. Picking a day that feels blessed for a wedding or a house move is a warm, meaningful thing to do. Any choice with real money or real stakes still deserves clear information and good advice, whatever the almanac says.
Almanac terms at a glance
The table below gathers the recurring terms a newcomer is most likely to notice, in plain English.
| Term | In Chinese | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Tong shu | 通书 | The almanac, the “book of everything” |
| Yi | 宜 | Activities considered suitable that day |
| Ji | 忌 | Activities best avoided that day |
| Jie qi | 节气 | The twenty-four solar terms of the year |
| Huang li | 黄历 | Another common name for the almanac |
Meeting the almanac as a newcomer
You do not need to follow the tong shu to appreciate it. If you are curious, printed editions are easy to find in Chinatown and in traditional shops around each Lunar New Year, and a bilingual friend can walk you through a page in a few minutes. Free apps offer a gentle introduction, letting you look up a date and see its suggested suitable and unsuitable activities without committing to anything.
The respectful approach is simply to treat the almanac as the rich piece of living heritage it is. Admire how it stitches together astronomy, farming seasons, calendar-keeping and folk wisdom into one small book that families have trusted for centuries. Ask friends how their households use it, enjoy learning a few terms, and, when big decisions come, let the almanac add meaning to the moment while your planning rests on sensible, well-informed judgement.