Daeboreum: Nuts, Grains, and the First Full Moon정월대보름 — 부럼 깨물기와 오곡밥

Jeongwol Daeboreum is the first full moon of the lunar new year, falling on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month — usually in February. If Seollal is Korea's family holiday, Daeboreum was traditionally the village's holiday, with roots reaching back to the Three Kingdoms period. In an agrarian society, the first full moon shining over the fields was the moment to pray, together, for a good harvest and a healthy year.

The customs are wonderfully concrete. In the morning, people crack hard-shelled nuts — walnuts, peanuts, chestnuts — with their teeth, a ritual called bureom, believed to bring good health. Adults drink a chilled shot of gwibalgisul, 'ear-brightening wine,' said to sharpen hearing and bring good news all year. The day's meal is ogokbap, a nutty five-grain rice served with dried vegetables. After dark comes the drama: daljip taeugi, the burning of a 'moon house' of pine branches stuffed with written wishes, so bad luck goes up in flames.

Today most Koreans mark the day quietly — supermarkets sell bureom nut packs and five-grain rice kits — but the bonfires still blaze at folk festivals across the country, and in Seoul you can crack nuts, write a wish, and watch the daljip burn without leaving the city.