The traditional Korean calendar or Dangun calendar (Korean: 단군; Hanja: 檀君) is a lunisolar calendar copied from the lunisolar Chinese calendar. Dates are calculated from Korea's meridian (135th meridian east in modern time for South Korea), and observances and festivals are based in Korean culture.
Koreans now mostly use the Gregorian calendar, which was officially adopted in 1896.[1] However, traditional holidays and age-reckoning for older generations are still based on the old calendar.
History
Similar to most traditional calendars of other East Asian countries, the Korean Calendar copied from the Chinese calendar.[2][3] The traditional calendar designated its years via Korean era names from 270 to 963, then Chinese era names with Korean era names at a few times until 1894.[citation needed] In 1894 and 1895, the lunar calendar was used with years numbered from the foundation of the Joseon Dynasty in 1392.[1]
The Gregorian calendar was adopted on 1 January 1896, with the Korean era name Geonyang (건양; 建陽; lit. adopting solar calendar).[1]
The gravestone of Kim Ku's wife, Ch'oe Chun-rye, uses the Dangun calendar written using hangul numerals (ㄱ=1, ㄴ=2, etc) for her birth year ("ㄹㄴㄴㄴ해" = 4222 = 1889 CE). For her death year, it uses hangul numerals to indicate the number of years after the founding of the Korean Provisional Government ("ㅂ해" = 6 = 1924 CE).
From 1945 until 1961 in South Korea, Gregorian calendar years were counted from the foundation of Gojoseon in 2333 BC (regarded as year one), the date of the legendary founding of Korea by Dangun.[1] These Dangi (단기; 檀紀) years were 4278 to 4294. This numbering was informally used with the Korean lunar calendar before 1945 but has only been occasionally used since 1961, and mostly in North Korea prior to 1997.
Although not being an official calendar, in South Korea, the traditional Korean calendar is still maintained by the government. The current version is based on East Asia's Shixian calendar (Korean: 시헌력; Hanja: 時憲暦; RR: siheollyeok), which was in turn revised by Jesuit scholars.
In modern Korean language, the months of both the traditional lunisolar and Western calendars are named by prefixing Sino-Korean numerals to wol, the Sino-Korean word for "month". Traditionally, when speaking of individuals' birth months, the months of the lunisolar calendar were named by prefixing the native Korean name of the animal associated with each Earthly Branch in the Chinese zodiac to dal, the native Korean word for "month". Additionally, the first, eleventh, and twelfth months have other Korean names which are similar to traditional Chinese month names.[4] However, the other traditional Chinese month names, such as Xìngyuè ("apricot month") for the second month, are not used in Korean.
The lunar calendar is used for the observation of traditional festivals, such as Seollal, Chuseok, and Buddha's Birthday. It is also used for jesa memorial services for ancestors and the marking of birthdays by older Koreans.
An ancestral service is offered before the grave of the ancestors, New Year's greetings are exchanged with family, relatives and neighbors; bows to elders (sebae, 세배, 歲拜), yut nori (윷놀이).
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