Baengno: When Dew Forms백로 — 풀잎에 이슬이 맺히는 때

Baengno — literally "white dew" — is the fifteenth of Korea's 24 solar terms, falling around September 7. Korea is often described as a lunar-calendar country, but the solar terms are exactly what the name says: a solar calendar that divides the sun's path through the sky into 15-degree segments, giving farmers a reliable guide to the seasons. Baengno marks the moment early autumn becomes visible. Morning temperatures begin dipping below the dew point, so at dawn the grass and ripening rice stalks are beaded with dew that gleams white in the low light — hence the name. It sits between Cheoseo, the "end of the heat" in late August, and Chubun, the autumn equinox. For farmers this window mattered enormously: rice needed steady sun now to finish ripening before harvest. Old almanacs also mark it as the time wild geese arrive from the north while swallows leave for the south. Few Koreans farm by the solar terms today, but Baengno still describes something everyone feels — the sticky monsoon heat finally breaks, mornings turn crisp, and the light sharpens. If you are in Korea in early September and suddenly need a light jacket at sunrise, you have just experienced Baengno.