There are taesol and tongji as the solar terms of December.

   Taesol means the heavy snow and falls on the 7^th or 8^th of December by solar calendar.

   It is said for ages that if snow falls heavily and widely during this period a soft winter of the year and a bumper harvest of next year are expected.

   Tongji means winter solstice and falls on the 21^st or 22^nd of December.

   On the day, the sun rises latest and sets earliest which means shortest daylight and longest night.

   In these days, people are busy with preventing crops from frost, manuring wheat-and-barley-sowed fields and repairing farming tools for next year.

   Typical folk dishes are adzuki bean porridge, cold noodle, tongchimi (radishes pickled in salt water), a fruit punch and the like. Among them adzuki bean porridge is famous on tongji day.

   According to the old record, tongji was regarded as a “small” New Year’s Day, so people used to cook the adzuki bean porridge with honey and balls-made of glutinous Indian millet or glutinous rice.

   It is one of the traditional practices of the Korean people to eat and share the porridge on the day, promoting harmonious relations with neighbours.

   During the periods, children enjoyed shuttlecock game, while the adults played Kongchagi which was similar to football and Jangchigi which was like field hockey.