Korea’s 2023 Jeongwol Daeboreum falls on January 15 in the lunar calendar, but it falls on Sunday, February 5 in the solar calendar.

Traditional K-food for Jeongwol Daeboreum that Koreans eat on Jeongwol Daeboreum include rice with five grains, red bean porridge, vegetables, and burum (nuts).

On Jeongwol Daeboreum, there is a custom to eat this kind of food and gather with family to wish for good luck and health for the year.

Below, we will tell you about the types of food for Jeongwol Daeboreum.

[K-food for Jeongwol Daeboreum]

Five grain rice

Ogokbap is the representative K-food for Jeongwol Daeboreum. Ogokbap refers to rice cooked with five or more mixed grains such as red beans, millet, sorghum, black beans, and glutinous rice. There has been a superstition that eating meat on Jeongwol Daeboreum from the past has been associated with uncleanness, so it is said that people only ate rice with five grains and vegetables on this day.

Red bean porridge

Many people are surprised to hear that red bean porridge is eaten on Jeongwol Daeboreum. Red bean porridge is usually eaten on the day of the winter solstice, but it is said that red beans are hated by ghosts, so people ate red bean porridge on the first full moon day of the year to drive away evil spirits, praying for health and stability for the year.

Herbs

On Jeongwol Daeboreum, there is a custom called Jinchae of eating nine kinds of dried herbs. There is a saying that if you eat dried herbs, you will not get hot in the summer of that year. Vegetables such as sweet potato sprouts, bellflower roots, dried fern, gobi, bracken, pumpkin, gourd, eggplant, and mushrooms are dried well and then boiled and eaten.

Burum (nuts)

There is a custom of breaking and eating nuts such as walnuts, ginkgo biloba, pine nuts, peanuts, and chestnuts on the morning of Jeongwol Daeboreum. It is also called burum, and it is a custom that has been handed down because the sound of breaking the burum carries away bad energy. At this time, the alcohol that is drunk with Burum is the alcoholic beverage. It is a superstition that comes down from the heart that if you drink alcohol, you will not get ear disease for a year and only hear good news.

For reference, there are some foods that you shouldn’t eat on Jeongwol Daeboreum. It is said that eating red pepper powder and kimchi can cause skin diseases and insect bites, and there is a custom not to eat green onions because weeds grow thick in rice paddies and fields.