Rites of spring

By Bernard Rowan

Let's talk about a trilogy of Korean festivals that herald and celebrate spring, its coming and flowering. Samjinnal, Hansik or Hanshi, and Dano are Asian holidays, also Chinese, found in Korea. While I don't think they surpass other yearly festivals in popularity, they help us understand the agricultural roots of traditional Korean culture. They also involve many fun activities and learning.

Samjinnal also goes by the name Double Third Festival, since it's on the third day of the third lunar month. This year it's March 26. This festival signals spring's beginning. Hwajeon rice cakes, azalea flowers, mung bean noodles, and dishes made with mugwort, pine and bean paste are associated with this festival.

Samjinnal also features fortune-telling and two games: pulssaum, involving grass leaves, and pulgaksi noreum, involving dolls. The Korean word for this festival implies double three. I hope a few people still see swallows around this time, and seemingly it's also good if one sees a snake. In many cultures, snakes symbolize the circle of life.

Once I visited a mountain in Korea and had my fortune told. I looked into a camera, and based on my facial features, a fortune popped out of a printer. I had a good fortune that day! I kept it in my possession. I remember my senior intentionally contorted his face into a grimace. His fortune wasn't so hot.

Hansik, a word that also refers to Korean traditional cuisine, has the meaning "Cold Food Festival". This festival commemorates the life of Jie Zhitui, a 7th-century Chinese nobleman. For some reason, Google is saying it's also March 26. I'm not sure if March 26 is 105 days after the winter solstice or not. Some say Jie died in a fire (perhaps murdered).

As a result, a superstition developed of avoiding fire when preparing food around this period of the year. It sounds like the more general meaning of this day concerns respect for the dead and for ancestors. Twinning with Chuseok, the beginning of spring and planting season heralds memories of the ancestors, on whose shoulders and efforts we stand. Wikipedia says that mugwort dishes are usual on this day. I don't recall much mugwort consumption in my time in Korea, but I read this food builds energy and is good for countering or staving off various ailments.

Dano (Day of the God) or Suritnal (from the word suri for "wheel" as in the round tteok cakes) is the more popular or well-known of Korean spring rites. It occurs on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. This year, it would be June 26, which is more summer than spring, perhaps late spring.

By this time, spring has flowered and entered its height. The day features various activities, including wrestling, swinging, and eating tteok or rice cakes and herb cakes. UNESCO has named Dano an intangible cultural heritage. Reading about Dano makes me think the festival brings forward younger Koreans, those entering or soon to be adults or married, to show their beauty and skill publicly.

I think these festivals show the lunar calendar's lasting relevance to life. Extending different rhythms than the Roman (solar) calendar, I can think of just Easter as a spring festival here. Amid the current concerns over world issues, including coronavirus, I want us to remember spring is coming. Spring brings life but also kills germs fond of cold weather. It brings love. This flow of nature and life on earth promises another renewal this year too. Happy spring.

Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.

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