Dano (festival)

Traditional Korean Holiday

Dano

Painting depicting Dano by Shin Yun-bok

Official name| Dano (단오)
Also called| Surit-nal (수릿날)
Observed by| Koreans
Type| Cultural, government
Date| 5th day of 5th lunar month
Related to| Duanwu Festival
Tango no sekku
Tết Đoan Ngọ
Dano

Hangul|

Hanja|

Revised Romanization| Dano
McCune–Reischauer| Tano
Surit-nal
Hangul|

수릿날

Revised Romanization| Surinnal
McCune–Reischauer| Surinnal

Dano (Korean: 단오), also called Surit-nal (수릿날), is a Korean traditional holiday that falls on the 5th day of the fifth month of the lunar Korean calendar. It is an official holiday in North Korea and one of the major traditional holidays in South Korea. South Korea has retained several festivals related to the holiday, one of which is Gangneung Dano Festival (강릉단오제) designated by UNESCO as a "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity".[2]

In the Mahan confederacy of ancient Korea, this was a day of spiritual rites, and enjoyment with song, dance, and wine. Traditionally, women washed their hair in water boiled with Sweet Flag (창포; changpo),[3] believed to make one's hair shiny. Women also put Angelica polymorpha (궁궁이; gung-gung-i) flowers in their hair out of the belief that its aroma would repel evil.[4] People wore blue and red clothes and dyed hairpins red with the iris roots. Men wore iris roots around their waist to ward off evil spirits. Herbs wet with dew on this morning were said to heal stomachaches and wounds. Traditional foods include surichwitteok (수리취떡), ssuktteok (쑥떡), and other herb rice cakes.[5]

Folk games associated with Dano include swinging, ssireum (wrestling), seokjeon (a stone battle game) and taekkyon (martial art). The swing was a game played by women, while ssireum was a wrestling match among men. In addition, mask dance used to be popular among peasants due to its penchant for satirical lyrics flouting local aristocrats.

## Etymology

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Korea Andong Dano Festival Seesawing Korea Andong Dano Festival Swinging

Dano is also called Surit-nal, which means high day or the day of god. The word surit harks back to suri (수레; sure),[6] meaning "wheel", which is why the rice cakes were marked with a wheel pattern.[7] The term "suri" has alternatively been associated with the word for eagle (수리; suri), a common shamanic motif.[8] Suritnal is also written in two hanja forms 戌衣日 · 水瀨日, but these are not etymological, merely homophonic.[6]

Dano is a Sino-Korean name, derived from the Duanwu Festival.[9] Other Sino-Korean readings for the date include 천중(가)절, 중오절, 단양, 오월절; 天中(佳)節, 重午節, 端陽, 五月節; Cheonjung(ga)jeol, Jung-ojeol, Danyang, Owoljeol.[6]

## Origin

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Modern history tends to characterize Dano to be a shamanistic ritual worshipping the sky deity in celebration of the end of sowing season.[9] According to the article A Comparative Study of the Tano Festivals between Korea and China, the people of Mahan confederacy celebrated day and night with dancing and singing after the sowing season in May. In the ancient state of Jinhan, a rite to heaven was held after the sowing of the seeds in May. It is said this custom was passed on to Silla and was venerated as Dano. In the northern regions living creatures wake from their winter sleep in May, so Dano was originally a holiday celebrated in the northern part of the country.[7] Since the Three Kingdoms of Korea era, the ancestral god also became an object of sacrifice. For example, in Gaya, Dano was one of five annual rituals for Suro, the legendary ancestor of Gaya. Since then, more emphasis was given to the ancestral rituals.[9]

The festival was syncretized with the sinitic Duanwu Festival during the Joseon period, adopting the new name Dano along with the exact date of celebration.[9]

## See also

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* Dragon Boat Festival
* List of festivals in Asia
* List of festivals in South Korea
* List of Korean traditional festivals
* Public holidays in North Korea
* Traditional Korean holidays

## References

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1. ^ "Dano Festival (Surit-nal) in Korea / June 26, 2020". AnydayGuide.
2. ^ "Festivals of Gangneung". Gangneung City official site. Archived from the original on 2014-01-04.
3. ^ Tour2Korea Dano Festival description Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine
4. ^ "Dano". Korea.net. June 7, 2016. Archived from the original on 2021-05-07. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
5. ^ "Encyber Encyclopedia article". Archived from the original on June 13, 2008.
6. ^ a b c 단오(端午). Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (in Korean). "일명 수릿날[戌衣日 · 水瀨日] · 중오절(重午節) · 천중절(天中節) · 단양(端陽)이라고도 한다. [...] 수리란 우리말의 수레[車]인데 높다[高], 위[上], 또는 신(神)이라는 뜻도 있어서 '높은 날', '신을 모시는 날' 등의 뜻을 지니고 있다."
7. ^ a b Yun, Sŏ-sŏk (2008). Festive occasions: the customs in Korea. Seoul: Ewha Womans Univ. Press. ISBN 978-8973007813.
8. ^ Grayson, James Huntley (1984). "Religious Syncretism in the Shilla Period: The Relationship between Esoteric Buddhism and Korean Primeval Religion". Asian Folklore Studies. 43 (2): 185. doi:10.2307/1178008.
This interpretation is also cited in Supplementary Information 5d of Robbeets, Martine; Bouckaert, Remco; Conte, Matthew; Savelyev, Alexander; Li, Tao; et al. (25 November 2021). "Triangulation supports agricultural spread of the Transeurasian languages". Nature. 599 (7886): 616–621\. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04108-8. PMC 8612925.
9. ^ a b c d Park, Jin-Tae (December 2008). 한ㆍ중 단오제의 비교 연구 [A Comparative Study of the Tano Festivals between Korea and China]. 비교민속학 (in Korean). 37: 77–106\. ISSN 1598-1010.

* The Academy of Korean Studies, ed. (1991), "Dano of May", Encyclopedia of Korean People and Culture, Woongjin (in Korean)

## External links

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