1. 3 different ways of saying midnight in Vietnamese, commonly used together in an expression.
2. 1st: literally midnight, 2nd: the zodiac times (12 animals), 3rd: the 5 'canh' as in the guards used at night
3. 2nd: the first animal in the 12 animals for lunar years, 3rd: the middle of the 5 'canh'

- nửa đêm: middle of the night - giờ tí: the 'mouse' hour, 1st hour in the 12 hours cycle (similar to the 12 animals in lunar calendar) of a day (one ancient hour = 2 hours in present time) - canh ba: the middle of 5 'tro^'ng canh', each is 2 hours long, starting from 7 pm. So 'canh ba' is from 11 pm to 1 am.