Chinese Gender Calendar
Discovering your little one's gender is one of pregnancy's most captivating and exciting aspects. Although there are several tools and gender prediction methods, the Chinese gender calendar or gender predictor chart gained significant notability for its postulated accuracy and intriguing history. If you are curious about this tool and want to know if you are carrying a boy or a girl? Try our Chinese gender predictor tool!
All you need to do is to give your date of birth and date of conception, and you could find your baby’s gender.
What Is The Chinese Gender Predictor?
The Chinese gender predictor, as the name suggests, is a method or tool used to predict an unborn baby’s gender with the help of the mother's lunar age and conception date (which can be calculated using a lunar calendar). It is also referred to as the Chinese gender prediction chart or Chinese lunar calendar (CLC) method. This baby gender prediction technique traces its origins back to ancient Chinese traditions. It is mainly based on the historical charts supposedly discovered in a tomb near Beijing almost 700 years ago (1).
Should You Use A Chinese Gender Calendar?
You may use this gender prediction tool as an informal method to ascertain your baby’s gender. This test can be performed among close family members or friends with a casual intent or picked as a gender-guessing game in baby showers. However, you must not rely solely on the outcomes or consider the test results as a replacement for a medical procedure since this method is not 100% reliable.
When Can You Use The Chinese Gender Predictor?
While most parents wait until the second trimester to undergo a gender-revealing test, it is not a mandate to adhere to this timeline for using this tool. Unlike a medical procedure, such as an ultrasound scan, which can accurately predict a baby’s gender after 20 weeks (2), this non-invasive and inexpensive baby gender-revealing method can be approached during any stage of pregnancy as it provides results specifically based on the mother's age and conception date.
How Accurate Is The Chinese Gender Predictor Calendar?
The chinese gender predictor test has no scientific backing. It could have a 50-50 chance of being right -- it means it is no more accurate than flipping a coin (3).
Therefore, some women might find it accurate, while some others might get it wrong purely based on chance. Though some researchers claim it to be more than 90% accurate, it is highly contested as there is no scientific proof. This gender calculator can be used just for fun. It is not a sure way of confirming the gender of your baby nor is it a replacement to scientific methods such as an ultrasound.
History Of The Chinese Gender Chart
There are several theories about the Chinese gender predictor chart. It is believed to have a 700- year old history and is based on the I Ching (or the Book of Changes) and relies on the Yin and Yang, the Five Elements and the Eight Trigrams (4). ‘The Book of Changes' is one of the earliest known classics of China, with a remarkable history of thousands of years. The Chinese gender prediction calendar is based on the Yin and Yang concept from the book, which forms the basis for various phenomena, including the human masculine and feminine features (5).
The Chinese gender chart was created for the imperial family of the Qing dynasty, who used the chart to conceive sons who were favored for work, making money and for carrying forward the family lineage.
It was kept in the Qing palace by dedicated eunuchs and was not for display or public use. During the Boxers Rebellion, at the end of the Qing dynasty, the chart was one among the looted exotic treasures. It was later brought to England, translated and treasured by the then King.
Later the chart was taken to Austria by a professor from where a Chinese scholar studied it in detail and brought it back to the homeland (2).
The original copy of the chart, which is in the Institute of Science in Beijing, is now gaining attention from the western and eastern world (3).
How Does The Chinese Gender Predictor Tool Work?
The Chinese gender calendar is based on the mother’s lunar age and the lunar date of conception. Don't worry if you do not know your 'lunar dates'.
We have simplified the task for you. Just add your actual date of birth and conception date, and our calculator automatically converts it into your lunar age and month and displays the final result. The calculation is based on the Chinese baby gender chart.
Note: Conception typically occurs between 11-21 days from the first day of the last mentrual period (6). The longer the menstrual cycle, the farther the conception date. For example, if you have a 28-day cycle, you are likely to conceive around the 14th day but if you have a 40-day cycle, you are likely to conceive around the 20th day. However, note that conception date cannot be known precisely but is mostly an estimate (7).
For instance,
- If your input date of birth is January 15, 1989, then based on the Gregorian-Lunar calendar (8), your lunar date of birth will be December 8, 1988 (31 years).
- Likewise, if your date of conception is June 5, 2018, your lunar date of conception will be April 22, 2018.
- According to your lunar age and month at conception, you are likely to have a baby girl.
How Is The Chinese Lunar Age Calculated?
The Chinese calculate their age since the time the baby is in the womb. It means you are one when born, and the Chinese lunar year adds one year to your month of birth.
For instance, if you were born on January 15 (before that year’s Chinese new year), your lunar age in June of the same year was two.
However, if you were born on March 10 (after that year’s Chinese new year), your lunar age in June of the same year was one.
In general, you are one or two years older in the Chinese lunar system because of the difference between the calendar and the Chinese practice of counting the time spent in the womb. You can use this link to convert Gregorian/English age to Chinese lunar age, for all the years from 1901 to 2100.
Can You Find Out The Baby’s Gender Using The Calculator?
The gender of your baby depends only on the chromosomes in the sperm released by the male. A combination of the Y chromosome from the father with the X chromosome of the mother makes it a boy while the X chromosome from the father combines with the X chromosome of the mother to make it a girl (9).
Neither the Chinese calculator nor any other calculator can accurately help you decide the gender of your future babies.
People following the Chinese gender calculator believe that a woman is likely to conceive a girl if both her date of birth and conception month are even or odd and conceive a boy if one date is even and the other is odd. However, this has no scientific support.
If the previous predictions of the calculator have come true for you, then you may try it when the gender (boy or girl) in this calculator is steady for about a couple of months. The chart provided on this page can help you find suitable months. But remember it is just a chance that you take.
Does The Chinese Gender Predictor Change Each Year?
The Chinese gender predictor chart is a traditional method, being used for centuries, and the chart, as such, does not change annually. However, the chart calculates maternal lunar age based on the Chinese (lunisolar) calendar, whose months and years are determined based on the sun’s and moon’s positions (10). Nonetheless, the method can suggest a baby’s gender based on the inputs provided by the user, irrespective of the year when they use it. Therefore, users should not be under the misconception that Chinese gender prediction charts labeled with years are the most accurate or the latest versions.
