How do Koreans celebrate Dongji

Amongst all the Korean Holidays, the only one that is widely known is Chuseok. However in Korea, there are many other holidays that are just as important yet less recognized.

 

In Korea, the Lunar calendar is used for the holidays and to know when the next season will begin so they can start to prepare for it. Around December 22nd of the Gregorian calendar, during the 11th lunar month, when the sun’s ecliptic is 270° it is the longest night and shortest day of the year. This is the winter solstice called Dongji.

From the lower extremities, the days gradually shorten and the nights begin to lengthen, reaching the poles on the day of winter solstice, and from the next day, the nights gradually shorten and the days begin to lengthen. The ancient people thought of this day as the day when the sun rose from death and held a festival to hold a memorial service for the sun god.

On Dongji, there is an old custom called winter solstice red bean porridge. When you finish making red bean porridge, you put it in the shrine first, put it in various places in the house, including each room, and barn, and then cool it down and eat it. The red bean porridge on the day of the winter solstice is one of the ceremonies of the time and has religious meaning. In other words, since the red bean porridge had a deceptive function, putting it in various parts of the house was meant to drive out all the evil spirits in the house, and putting it in the shrine has the will of heaven.

Red beans were believed to be effective in keeping out demons and were widely used folklore. It is said that if you put red beans in a well during the epidemic, the water will clear up and the disease will disappear, and when a person dies, the custom is to pack red bean porridge to ward off evil spirits.
Shaking red bean porridge on the day of the winter solstice and spraying it on the walls near the gates or gates where people come and go is also a kind of exorcism to ward off evil spirits. Making red bean porridge, red bean rice cake, and red bean rice even when there is a happy event or disaster has the same meaning.

 

To this day, it is common to see people eating red bean porridge on Dongji, the longest winter night of the year.

 

Written by: Soo Min Kim

Originally from Honolulu, Hawaii. Current 4th year university student, Candidate for a Bachelor of Arts in Korean Language Flagship and Second Language Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Exchange student at Korea University and Intern at VANK (Voluntary Agency Network of Korea)