Season | Spring | ||||||||||
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Period | 21 May 2021 (solar calendar) | ||||||||||
Introduction | "Soman" (小滿), which literally means "the day of steady growth," is the eighth of the twenty-dour seasonal sub-divisions, or solar terms, of the lunar calendar. It falls around May 21 of the solar calendar or in April of the lunar calendar. | ||||||||||
Soman (小滿), Day of Steady Growth
"Soman" is the season when the leaves of the ubiquitous toothed ixeridium, known as "sseumbagwi" in Korean, are pulled up from the fields to make deliciously bitter and savory "Namul" dishes, while shepherd’s purse, or "naengi" in Korean, has vanished from the table, and the ears of barley turn golden, heralding early summer. The ancient prose work Nongga Wollyeongga (農家月令歌) records: "Come April, or Maengha (early summer), it is the season of Ipha and Soman." This is the time when summer is palpable in the air as plants grow robustly; thus "Maengha" is another name for "early summer."
This is also the time when farmers get busy with planting rice. This is a very busy season for farmers as they carry out the early planting, reap the autumn barley, and weed the fields. the winds around this time are so frigid that farmers used to say, "Old men freeze to death in the Soman wind." |