Astrological Calendar

Astrological calendar (palalintangan). Rectangle of cotton cloth, starched (traditionally with a paste of rice flour and water) and painted with human figures, animals, etc., in forty-two squares (plus seven animals across the bottom). Colors are light brown, red, black, green, gray, and yellow. Such astrological calendars, depicting constellations, were originally part of fortune-telling books (wariga), which, among other things, interpreted the influence of the stars on human affairs. The seven squares across the top represent the seven days of the Indian planetary week; with their repspective tutelary gods. In the thirty-five squares below are represented the constellations.