Dano Festival
At the 5 star resort in Alicante Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa we keep discovering new Asian traditions and rites. Today we are taking you to South Korea to fin out about its famous Dano Festival.
The Dano Festival, which is also known as Surit-nal, is one of the main Korean traditional holidays. It takes place every year on the 5th day of the fifth month of the lunar Korean calendar. It celebrates spring and this year falls on June 21.
Originally, Korean farmers celebrated Dano to wish for a good harvest. The celebration included sharing the food and practicing several activities to strengthen the body. It was considered to be the most important festivity in Korea.
The most famous tradition for women was washing their hair in water boiled with Sweet Flag. They believed it avoided bad omens. Nowadays Korean women still do it to make their hair shiny.
Currently the Dano Festival takes place in the city of Gangneung by the river Namdae. Among the activities developed at the festival, we can find plays, folk dances and traditional and modern ones. The most famous dance is the one with Gwanno masks, which is only performed at Dano.
The festival also includes a ssireum competition, a wrestling match among men, customizing Dano fans, swing and a firework show.
As every Asian tradition, Dano has its own traditional dishes: surichwitteok, a rice cake, and junchiguk, herring soup.
Come live your own Asian experience at Southeast Asia in the Mediterranean. We are looking forward to seeing you at the luxury hotel Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa.
