한식 세시 음식 달력
Korean food calendar — 설·추석·복날 and the year’s table
The Korean year in food: Seollal tteokguk, Daeboreum five-grain rice, Boknal samgyetang, Chuseok songpyeon, Dongji red-bean porridge, kimjang — with dates and what to cook.
Two calendars, one table
Korean holiday food follows the lunar calendar (Seollal, Daeboreum, Dano, Chuseok) while the seasonal markers — Boknal dog days, Dongji solstice, kimjang — follow the sun. Dates below give the lunar rule and the usual Gregorian window. If you cook one dish from each row you will have eaten a Korean year.
The year
| When | Day | Eat | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lunar 1/1 · late Jan–Feb | Seollal 설날 | Tteokguk, jeon, galbi-jjim, japchae, sikhye | White rice-cake coins for a clean year; one bowl = one year older. Read Seollal food. |
| Lunar 1/15 · Feb | Jeongwol Daeboreum 정월대보름 | Ogokbap (five-grain rice), nine dried namul, bureom nuts cracked at dawn, gwibalgi-sul wine | First full moon; nuts for strong teeth, dried greens to survive the last cold. |
| Lunar 3/3 · April | Samjinnal 삼짇날 | Hwajeon (azalea rice-flour pancakes), spring greens | Swallows return; flowers go on the griddle. |
| 105 days after Dongji · ~Apr 5–6 | Hansik 한식 | Cold food, mugwort tteok, tomb-sweeping picnic | “Cold food day” — no fire; the name is a homonym of hansik the cuisine. |
| Lunar 5/5 · June | Dano 단오 | Surichwi-tteok (mugwort rice cake), cherry punch (앵두화채) | Peak-yang day; herbs at full strength. |
| Lunar 6/15 · July | Yudu 유두 | Yudu-myeon wheat noodles, honey water | Wash hair in an east-flowing stream; eat the new wheat. |
| Mid-July → mid-Aug (3 days) | Boknal 복날 — 초복·중복·말복 | Samgyetang, eel (장어), kongguksu, naengmyeon, patbingsu | The three dog days. Hot soup on the hottest day to sweat the heat out; read food as medicine. |
| Lunar 7/7 · Aug | Chilseok 칠석 | Wheat noodles, wheat jeon | Last of the wheat before the autumn wind “spoils” its taste. |
| Lunar 8/15 · Sep–Oct | Chuseok 추석 | Songpyeon, toran-tang (taro soup), jeon, new-rice, fresh fruit | Harvest moon and ancestral rite. Read Chuseok food and jesa. |
| Lunar 9/9 · Oct | Jungyangjeol 중양절 | Chrysanthemum jeon and wine (국화전·국화주) | Double-nine; the last flower pancake of the year. |
| Late Nov → early Dec | Kimjang 김장 | Kimchi by the box, bossam on kimjang day, fresh 겉절이 | Winter insurance made with neighbors; UNESCO-listed. Read kimjang community. |
| ~Dec 21–22 | Dongji 동지 | Patjuk (red-bean porridge) with saealsim rice balls — one per year of age | Longest night; red beans chase spirits from the doorstep. |
| Lunar 12/30 · Jan–Feb | Seotdal Geumeum 섣달그믐 | Leftovers mixed — the folk origin of bibimbap; mandu folded for the New Year | Nothing crosses into the new year, including last year’s rice. |
Seasonal produce, in the order it hits the market
- Spring — 냉이 (shepherd’s purse), 달래 (wild chive), 쑥 (mugwort), 주꾸미 (webfoot octopus), strawberries.
- Summer — 애호박, cucumber, 참외 (Korean melon), young 감자, 민어 (croaker), watermelon.
- Autumn — new rice (햅쌀), 송이 (pine mushroom), chestnut, jujube, 전어 (gizzard shad), 대하 (prawn), persimmon.
- Winter — napa and radish for kimjang, 굴 (oyster), 과메기 (half-dried herring), 방어 (yellowtail), tangerines from Jeju.
Table logic by season: summer table, winter table, seasonal eating.
FAQ
What do Koreans eat on Seollal (Lunar New Year)?
Tteokguk — clear soup with sliced white rice cake — plus jeon pancakes, galbi-jjim, japchae, and sikhye. Eating a bowl of tteokguk traditionally adds a year to your age.
What is Boknal and what do you eat?
Boknal are the three “dog days” of high summer (chobok, jungbok, malbok, mid-July to mid-August). The classic meal is samgyetang, a whole young chicken with ginseng — hot soup to sweat out heat — along with eel, cold noodles, and shaved ice.
What food is eaten at Chuseok?
Songpyeon (half-moon rice cakes with sesame or bean filling), taro soup, assorted jeon, freshly harvested rice, and fruit like pears and chestnuts, much of it first offered at the ancestral table.
When is kimjang season?
Late November to early December, after the first frost sweetens the napa cabbage and before hard freezes. Families and neighbors make a winter’s worth of kimchi together; boiled pork (bossam) is the traditional lunch of kimjang day.
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Updated 2026-09-04