Weeks and Months

Here’s another little bit of useless information about the Chinese language.  When they adopted the western calendar over the traditional Chinese lunar calendar they didn’t have names for the months or the days like we do.  So they just use numbers.  January is yī yuè, which literally means “first month.” February is èr yuè, or “second month.” It goes on like that all the way through December, shí èr yuè, or “ten two month,” with “ten two” meaning 12.

The same goes with days.  Monday is xīng qī yī, meaning “day one.” Tuesday is xīng qī èr, “day two,” and so on.  The only difference is Sunday, which is known both as xīng qī rì, or “day of the sun,” or xīng qī tiān, or “day of heaven.” This is probably a throwback to the old colonial days, when many schools and universities were started by Christian missionaries.