Daeboreum: First Full Moon Fire Festival정월대보름 달집태우기

Fifteen days after Lunar New Year comes Jeongwol Daeboreum, the first full moon of the lunar year — usually in February. For centuries this was one of rural Korea's biggest holidays, and its most dramatic custom survives today: daljip-taeugi, 'burning the moon house.'

A daljip is a towering cone of straw, bamboo, and pine branches built like a rough house. As the full moon rises, it is set ablaze. The roaring fire is believed to carry away bad luck and evil spirits and to invite a good harvest; people often tie paper slips with handwritten wishes to the structure before it burns. The fire tradition is rooted in Korea's agrarian past — a related game, jwibulnori, had farmers swinging cans of embers over fields at night, which burned off pests and old grass before spring planting.

The day has its own foods, still eaten across Korea: bureom (walnuts, peanuts, and chestnuts cracked with your teeth for a year of health) and ogokbap, a five-grain rice served with seasoned dried vegetables. Unlike Seollal or Chuseok, Daeboreum is not a public holiday, so many visitors never hear of it — but coastal cities and riverside towns still hold large public bonfires. Standing in a crowd, watching a burning tower under the year's first full moon, is one of Korea's most primal seasonal experiences.