腊月
Là yuè · HSK 7
twelfth lunar month
🌙 腊 = year-end sacrifice month + 月 = month/moon, so the final lunar month
腊 (là) named the ancient year-end 腊祭 sacrifice rites, and 月 (yuè) means month or moon. Together 腊月 marks the twelfth and last month of the lunar year, the cured-meat season before New Year.
月 — pictograph of crescent moon
月 is a pictograph of a crescent moon, chosen over a full circle to distinguish it from 日 (sun). The inner strokes originally depicted the moon's shadow or markings. As a radical it often relates to the moon, time, or (via a lookalike form of 肉 'flesh') body parts.