정월 대보름Great Full Moon

< 정월대보름Daeboreum - Great Full Moon >

Today is Daeboreum day!

Daeboreum (대보름; literally "Great Full Moon") is a Korean holiday that celebrates the first full moon of the new year of the lunar Korean calendar which is the Korean version of the First Full Moon Festival. This holiday is accompanied by many traditions.

Bureom (Korean: 부럼깨기): People crack nuts with one's teeth, believing that this will keep one's teeth healthy for the year.

Dalmaji (Korean: 달맞이): In the countryside, people climb mountains, braving cold weather, trying to catch the first rise of the moon. It is said that the first person to see the moon rise will have good luck all year or a wish will be granted.

Jwibulnori (Korean: 쥐불놀이): A traditional game that is played the night before Daeboreum. They burn the dry grass on ridges between rice fields while children whirl around cans full of holes, through which charcoal fire blaze. These cans fertilize the fields and get rid of harmful worms that destroy the new crops.

The traditional foods of Daeboreum have a lot of connections with superstition.

People drink cold 'Guibargi Wine' in the morning, believing one will only hear good news all year round and will hear better.

The nutcracking that is described in the book, <Dongguk-sesigi (in Korean: 동국세시기)> has been widely spread not only in Korea but also in China and Japan, and it is being performed on New Year's Day, too.

There is also a custom of eating ogokbap (오곡밥 or chalbap, 찰밥) and yakbap (약밥) around Daeboreum. Yakbap is made by steaming glutinous rice and mixing jujube, chestnut, pine nuts, oil, honey, and soy sauce together. In South Jeolla Province (전라남도), people steamed it with a 'siru' (시루) steamer and gave it to the castellan, so it is called 'castellan rice' or 'siru rice'.

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