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 Home >> Attractions >> Customs of different seasons
What is a Boknal?

Korea has four distinct seasons. It is a Korean custom to choose the 3 hottest days of the summer and to eat especially healthy food on those days. Koreans call those three days Sambok.
Sambok includes Chobok, Jungbok, Malbok. Chobok takes place between July 12th and 20th according to the lunar calendar.   This year, Chobok will be on July 16th.   Jungbok and Malbok will be held respectively on July 26th and August 5th.
This year Chobok is June 16th and Jungbok, Malbok are June 26th and August 5th.   There are 20 days separating Chobok and Malbok.   These 20 days are called the Sambok heat period.

Special dishes are prepared during the Boknal season: Samgyet'ang. This is a ginseng chicken soup, believed to cool the body during hot and humid days. The body cavity of a small chicken is stuffed with glutinous rice, young ginseng shoots, and jujubes. The chicken is then boiled in a clear stock and served in an individual earthenware pot. It is highly recommended for those new to Korean food. This dish is famous as summer dish. Koreans try to survive the summer heat with hot stamina food. This wonderful dish is gradually being recognized by the rest of the world. Even if you are skeptical about the properties attributed to ginseng, you will enjoy this dish which is said to give stamina during the steamy Korean summers.
Patjuk is another popular dish as it is said to prevent people from hot weather sickness.

In the countryside where cows and pigs were needed for farming, dogs would be eaten instead, and some people would protect themselves from the heat sitting in ditches and eating watermelons or melons.   On those unbearably hot days, seashore inhabitants would bury themselves in the sand to keep their body cool.
15-06-2001
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