The Seasonal Days

Between Seollal and Chuseok the traditional year had other marked days, most of them not public holidays. This chapter looks at five: the first full moon (Daeboreum), Hansik, Dano, Chilseok and the winter solstice. For each, it asks how the day is dated, what the sources document, and whether the sources trace it to China, to older Korean rites, or to both.

The Year in Five Days

Daeboreum

The Daeboreum article says it "celebrates the first full moon of the new year of the lunar Korean calendar" and is "accompanied by many traditions".

What it says about origins

The article points to the Samguk Yusa story of King Soji of Silla, in which a crow led the king to a plot, and says that afterwards the 15th of the first month was called Ogiil and sacrifice was offered to heaven. It adds that the origin "can be recognized" in customs of lantern lighting listed in the Samguk Sagi and the Silla annals, and that the lantern custom was recorded in the Joseon annals in the 13th year of Taejong's reign. The article's English is rough in places, and I report only the broad claims. They are stated as records ("recorded", "described"), which makes them stronger than the "popular belief" claims of Chapter 4, though I read none of the sources myself.

Customs the article lists

Several of the listed customs are practical beliefs and some are plainly playful. The article lists, among others, a custom of not feeding dogs on this day, said to prevent them from being "infested with flies" in summer, and one of taking mud from the houses of the rich to spread on one's own walls "wishing they would be wealthy, too". I report these as the article's list, and I do not know how many places still keep them.

Hansik

The Cold Food Festival article describes Hansik as "the Korean equivalent" of that festival. It says it takes place on the 105th day after the winter solstice, "April 5 in the Gregorian calendar, except in leap years when it is on April 4". It is "a day to welcome the warm weather thawing the frozen lands". Rites to worship ancestors are observed early in the morning, and the family visits the ancestors' tombs to tidy up.

• What has gone. The article says "the custom of eating cold food on the day has, however, disappeared". So the day is named for a practice that no longer happens.
• A modern overlap. The article adds that the day "coincides with Arbor Day", so public cemeteries are crowded with visitors planting trees around the tombs. I did not read a source for this, and Arbor Day's status is not covered in Chapter 2's holiday table.
• The legend. The Chinese story that the festival explains concerns Jie Zhitui, a nobleman of Jin in the 7th century BC, a "model of self-sacrificing loyalty". The article gives the story as the "usual" origin. It is a legend about China, and it is not a Korean record.

Dano

The Dano article says the day falls on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, is "an official holiday in North Korea and one of the major traditional holidays in South Korea" (but not, per Chapter 2, a day off there), and that South Korea "has retained several festivals related to the holiday". One of them, the Gangneung Dano Festival, is described as "designated by UNESCO as a 'Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity'". Chapter 8 returns to festivals of this kind.

On origin, the article says "modern history tends to characterize Dano to be a shamanistic ritual worshipping the sky deity in celebration of the end of the sowing season". It cites a comparative study of Korean and Chinese festivals for the claim that the Mahan confederacy celebrated after the May sowing, and that Jinhan held a rite to heaven. "It is said this custom was passed on to Silla." It adds that "the festival was syncretized with the sinitic Duanwu Festival during the Joseon period, adopting the new name Dano along with the exact date of celebration."

Chilseok

The Chilseok article says it falls on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month and originates "from the Chinese Qixi Festival". It tells the Korean version of the tale of the weaver Jiknyeo and the herder Gyeonu, separated across the Milky Way and allowed to meet once a year. Crows and magpies form a bridge, and "it is believed" these birds have no feathers on their heads because the couple stepped on them. Rain on that night "is believed to be the couple's tears".

The customs it lists are bathing "for good health", eating wheat noodles and grilled wheat cakes because the day is "known as the last chance to enjoy wheat-based foods" before cold winds spoil the wheat's scent, and offering fried pumpkins to the Big Dipper. The article states plainly that the tale "was adopted by Koreans". It is a clear case where the sources name the borrowing.

Dongji, the Winter Solstice

The Dongzhi Festival article says that in Korea the winter solstice "is also called the 'Small Seol'", and that people make red bean porridge (patjuk, 팥죽) with round glutinous rice balls (saealsim). "In the past, red bean porridge soup was sprayed on walls or doors because it was said to ward off bad ghosts." It also says that "in the early days of the Goryeo and Joseon Period" people in financial difficulty "settled all their debts and enjoyed the day".

• Why red? The Patjuk article says people "used to believe that the red color of patjuk drives off baneful spirits".
• The count of balls. It adds that "the number of saealsim added is often the same number as the eater's age", which links to the age-reckoning of Seollal (Chapter 3).
• The name. "Small Seol" suggests the solstice was once a kind of lesser new year. The article gives that name and does not explain it, so I do not infer more.

Reading a Seasonal Day

1. Date rule. Lunar day, solar term, or counted from a solar term?
2. Layers. Does the source describe an older rite, a borrowed festival, or both, and does it hedge?
3. Name against practice. Hansik is named for cold food that is no longer eaten. A name can outlast the custom.
4. Belief against record. "Is believed" tells you what people said, and not that it works.

Exercises

Next chapter: Rites and Faiths, which covers ancestor rites (jesa), Confucian ritual, Buddhist festivals, shamanic gut, and how the sources describe their mixing.