Happy Birthday, Mom! (A day early. Again.)

I called Mom this morning to wish her a happy birthday. I felt so on top of things until she reminded me that it’s actually tomorrow. This is the second year in a row that I called her a day early. Damn.

Now before you start wondering what's wrong with me that I can’t even get my own mother's birthday right, you must hear me out. Tracking her birthday is complicated.

Mom goes by the Chinese Lunar Calendar when it comes to her birthday. This means her birthday falls on a different day each year on the Gregorian calendar.

To figure out which day it falls on, I download a copy of the Lunar Calendar from the Web (look to the right for an example). As you can see, her birthday is June 10 (highlighted in yellow), and the corresponding Gregorian calendar date is July 21.



So why am I always a day early? It’s because June 10 is not her real birthday. She was actually born on June 11, but someone at the passport agency fat-fingered the date on her passport and put down June 10 instead. And because all of her other official documents like the driver's license is based on her passport, her birthday officially became June 10.

Long story short, her birthday is June 10. But she was really born on June 11. But remember, that’s June 11 on the Lunar Calendar, which means a different day altogether on the Gregorian Calendar.

Like I said, it’s complicated.