In East Asia there is an old custom of carefully choosing the day a shop or business first opens its doors. This is called “gaeeop taegil” (business-opening date selection). Since it is the first day of starting something new, from of old the day has been chosen so as to take the first step on good energy.
Traditionally, several things are considered. First, “son-less days” — days the folk tradition held free of a disrupting energy (“son”), around the lunar days ending in 9 and 0, seen as auspicious. Second, the opening owner’s saju is weighed to choose a day that harmonizes with that person’s energy, consulting days seen as favorable to wealth or to beginnings. Third, the season and real circumstances — the days and times good for gathering customers, and when preparations are fully complete — are considered together. Layering these, two or three candidate days are shortlisted, and then the final day is settled.
But here is something to keep in the heart. Business-opening date selection is by no means a magic that guarantees the success or failure of a business. However famous the auspicious day you open on, it is useless if preparation and devotion are poor; and even opening on an ordinary day, if there are good goods and sincere service, that shop fills with customers. Taegil is not the cause of success, but only an anchor that sets in order the heart of “now we begin” and shares that resolve with those alongside you. There is no need to try to buy opening-luck with a talisman or a costly ritual.
So cherish the mindset of choosing a good day, but do not forget that where you should truly pour your strength is not the date but the business itself. Whether you open on an auspicious day or a weekday, carrying on the excitement and devotion of the first day is the true opening-luck. As FortuneLeaf always does, what business-opening date selection offers is not a superstition that bets success on a date, but a soft reflection that lets you tend, together, the resolve turned toward a new start — for the best day to open a door is not the one the calendar decrees, but the day a prepared heart and devotion have ripened.