Need Help Translating Date of My Daughter's Birth

[kurtr]

Hi-

The attached note was found in the clothing with my daughter. Presumably it was written by her birth parents when she was given up. The orphanage translated it into a certain date and my Chinese co-worker confidently translated it into a different date. I'd like to know what you think it says.

I hope you can translate the whole note -- not just the date. I believe the note says "Chun Li" at the bottom. This is the name the orphanage gave her. "Chun Li" would have been written by the orphanage (not the birth parents).

Many thanks in advance!!

Kurt

[skylee]

It says -

Born at 2:05 pm on the tenth day of the eigth month of the lunar calendar in 2000. Chun Li

According to the Hong Kong Observatory, that date corresponds to 7 September 2000. See the two webpages below -

http://www.hko.gov.h.../conversion.htm

http://www.hko.gov.h...r/pdf/2000e.pdf

[kurtr]

The date that the orphanage gave us was 26 September 2001. Using the Gregorian-Lunar conversion I see...

The 10th day of the 8th month of 2000 translates to 7 September 2000.

The 10th day of the 8th month of 2001 translates to 26 September 2001.

Is there any possibility that the note says 2001 instead of 2000? Maybe the handwriting is sloppy?

Thank You!!

[skylee]

No, I don't think so. You see that character 二？ It means two. And the three characters next to it are all 零. It means zero. Together they mean 2000. You can see that 零 is not easy to write and the writer wrote it very clearly, three times.

But was it possible that the writer thought about 2001 but wrote 2000, or mistook 2001 for 2000? You can't completely rule that out, in the same way as you can't rule out that the orphanage might have made a mistake.

[imron]

Maybe the handwriting is sloppy?

The handwriting is sloppy, but the year is clear.

Many Chinese people still use the lunar calendar for celebrating their birthdays, so if the uncertainty regarding your daughter's Gregorian birthdate is a problem you could use her lunar birthdate instead - this would mean that the date you celebrate each calendar year would be different, but still exact according to the lunar calendar.

The other alternative is to celebrate her birthday 3 times a year

[jonathan1lim]

The note reads year 2000.

Another point to note, the name chun li could have been the birth mother's name as it is written at the bottom of the note.

It is like a sign off with own's name in a note.

Hope this helps.