Season | Winter | ||||||||||||||
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Period | around 20 January on the Gregorian calendar | ||||||||||||||
Introduction | "Daehan" (大寒), which literally means "great cold," refers to the 24th and last of the 24 seasonal sub-divisions, or solar terms, of the lunar calendar. | ||||||||||||||
Daehan (大寒) "Daehan" (大寒), which literally means "great cold," refers to the 24th and last of the 24 seasonal sub-divisions, or solar terms, of the lunar calendar. "Daehan" falls on the last day of the lunar calendar, or around January 20 on the solar calendar.
From the time of the year known as "Ipdong" (立冬) through "Soseol" (小雪), "Daeseol" (大雪), and "Dongji" (冬至) to "Sohan" (小寒), the winter cold only gets colder. They may say "Daehan" after "Sohan" is the coldest day of the year, but that’s according to the Chinese calendar. In Korea the coldest time falls around "Sohan".
In the meantime, Jeju islanders refer to the period between the fifth day after "Daehan" and the third day before "Ipchun" as "Singugan" (新舊間). "Singugan" is a roughly one-week period during which people move house, or carry out repairs or work around the house. According to a folk legend, during this period the gods in charge of earthly affairs in the old year and the new gods in charge of earthly affairs in the new year traded places by ascending to the Great Jade Emperor, so there's a period when the god are absent from the earth. Free from the wrath of the earth gods, people could engage in various tasks, such as repair work or moving house. |