✦ zenith calendar · the korea almanac
gonghyuil, from seollal to chuseok, in one quiet layer of your sky, each one explained in its own words.
korea is one of the holiday almanacs that come with zenith calendar. it holds the public holidays, gonghyuil, of the republic of korea as the law sets them, with the substitute days the law's own rule gives. seollal, buddha's birthday and chuseok are kept by the korean lunar calendar.
its dates come from the government's published calendar, not worked out on your phone. tap a day and read three short paragraphs: what it is, where it comes from, and how it is kept.
gregorian and korean lunar · seollal, buddha's birthday and chuseok by the lunar calendar
hangeullal
9 october
the national day for hangeul, the korean alphabet made by king sejong the great: korea celebrates its own letters and the king who gave them to the people.
the government holds a ceremony honouring hangeul, homes fly the taegukgi, and schools, libraries and towns hold events celebrating the korean letters.
the korean lunar new year
the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, with the day before and the day after
with chuseok the greatest family holiday of the year: families travel home to be together and honour their ancestors.
families hold charye for the ancestors, then the young bow to their elders in sebae and receive words of blessing and new year money. everyone eats tteokguk, a soup of white rice cakes.
bucheonim osin nal
the 8th day of the 4th lunar month
korea's buddhists celebrate the birth of the buddha, and people of every faith share in the lanterns.
lotus lanterns of hanji paper hang in temples, homes and streets, and the yeondeunghoe lantern parade fills jongno in seoul. many temples give free meals and tea to every visitor.
hangawi
the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, with the day before and the day after
the harvest festival under the full moon: families gather to give thanks for the harvest and to honour their ancestors.
families travel home, hold charye with the new rice and fruits of the harvest, and tidy and visit the ancestral graves. together they make songpyeon, half-moon rice cakes steamed on pine needles.
zenith calendar draws the year as an orbit round the sun. lit, korea puts its days on their dates on that ring, in lilac. its mark is its flag, 🇰🇷.
each holiday carries three short paragraphs in its notes: what it is, where it comes from as its own tradition or the country itself tells it, and how it is kept.
on a new install, your phone's own country starts switched on. if your phone's language setting names south korea as its region, korea starts lit; anywhere else it waits in the archive, whole.
korea arrives locked, so nothing in it changes by accident. the lock guards your hand, not your eye: you can still read it, shine it or eclipse it from its chip. one tap unlocks it, and then it is yours to rename, recolour or add to.
korea shares one sky with your own commitments. like every almanac that comes with the app, it never counts toward the almanacs you can make for free, and it lives on your phone: zenith calendar has no server of its own.
✦ zenith calendar · the sky around it
korea is a single layer. beneath it is a whole calendar drawn as the sky, your year an orbit round the sun, and every part of it answers your touch.
the sun stands at the centre and the year rings round it, with today's earth riding at today's place, its small moon beside it. tap the ring anywhere else and a faint ghost earth waits on that day.
drag along the ring and the days pass under your finger, the big date and the day's list following as you go. lift, and the day you stopped on stays picked.
tap the small moon beside today's earth and you dive into the week. the moon above shows its phase, named underneath; swipe the dates and each week brings its own.
tap the sun and the ring tips on its edge into a ladder of years. in the week, pull the moon firmly down and the month opens, the moon resting half off its foot.
zenith calendar has no server of its own. tap the gear and switch on "nothing comes in" or "nothing leaves this phone"; lift them, and every almanac is back exactly as it was.
korea is waiting in the app, and the rest of the sky comes with it.
korea (public holidays) ·
Hangeul Day, hangeullal, is 9 October every year, so it falls on 9 October 2026. In Zenith Calendar it sits on the ring of your year in the korea almanac.
The Seollal holiday runs from 6 to 8 February 2027: the first day of the first lunar month, with the day before and the day after.
Buddha's Birthday, bucheonim osin nal, falls on 13 May 2027, the eighth day of the fourth lunar month.
The Chuseok holiday runs from 14 to 16 September 2027, around the full moon of the eighth lunar month. In 2026 it ran from 24 to 26 September.
Zenith Calendar for Android comes with an almanac called korea: the public holidays of the Republic of Korea, lunar days included, drawn on the ring of your year beside your own days. Turning it on costs nothing.
Korea holds the public holidays, the days off. Buddhist (korea) holds the Buddhist days of the Jogye Order. They are separate almanacs, so you can light either or both.
On a new install, the first page asks which almanacs start lit. If your phone's language setting names South Korea as its region, the korea almanac starts switched on; otherwise it waits in the archive until you light it.
They are copied from the government's published calendar, not worked out on your phone. The lunar days and substitute days are dated as far as that calendar is published.