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Global phenomenon
Name	Death Date Revelation
Date	23 years ago
Discoverer	李唯 / Lǐ Wéi
Institution	[undisclosed biotech company], China
Status	Global adoption
Key terms	Death date · Dat la · Jou reto · 기일 · La fecha

The death date (also referred to by its many cultural names; see regional articles) is the day and month on which a person will die, exclusive of the year of death. Knowledge of this date became globally available following the publication of a scientific paper by Chinese researcher 李唯 / Lǐ Wéi approximately 23 years ago, describing a reproducible biological method for its determination. The paper did not disclose the underlying mechanism in full, and no subsequent study has independently derived it.

Discovery and dissemination

The finding was published by 李唯 / Lǐ Wéi, a researcher working within a Chinese biotech company whose identity has not been officially disclosed. The paper described a method by which the death date — the calendar day and month of an individual's death, not the year — could be determined from biological data available at or before birth. Lǐ Wéi has given no interviews and made no public statements beyond the paper itself.

Following publication, the Chinese government established a centralised server through which registered medical practitioners can access the death date of any newborn, calculated from the precise moment of first breath. This system has since been adopted, in varying institutional forms, by the majority of national governments.

Parental disclosure

In all participating countries, parental consent frameworks govern whether a newborn's death date is disclosed to the family. Parents may opt out of receiving this information at the time of birth. Opt-out rates vary significantly by country, region, religious affiliation, and cultural context.

The death date, once generated, is retained in the relevant national registry regardless of whether it is disclosed to the family.

Cultural responses

The availability of the death date has produced significant and varied cultural responses across the world. Almost all societies have developed rituals, ceremonies, and social customs oriented around the annual recurrence of an individual's death date, broadly analogous in social function to the observance of birth dates, though differing substantially in theological interpretation, emotional register, and community practice.

For country- and culture-specific ritual traditions, see:

• South Korean ritual tradition
• Chinese ritual tradition
• Haiti ritual tradition
• Ghana ritual tradition
• Mexico ritual tradition
• England ritual tradition
• Japan ritual tradition

See also

• Li Wei paper
• Death date opt-out rates by country
• List of death date ritual traditions