Dano Festival (Surit-nal) in Korea Date in the current year: June 10, 2024

Dano festival takes roots in ancient Korea. At that time Dano was a day of spiritual rites and everyone could enjoy songs, dance and wine. The traditions of Dano are still kept till modern time, but the festival is no more as popular as it was earlier.

Traditionally, women washed hair in water boiled with sweet flag, as it should make their hair shiny. Women also played a swing game. Men had their own traditions, for instance, they wore iris roots around waist, that would ward off evil spirits. Men played stone battle games and a wrestling game. Everyone wore blue and red clothes and dyed hairpins red with iris roots. Since herbs were given much attention, traditional food included different wheel-patterned herb rice cakes.

Another name of Dano is Surit-nal, that in Korean means “high day” or “the day of god”. The word surit origins from suri, that means “wheel”, and it explains, why herb rice cakes have a wheel pattern on them.