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Mangjong means harvesting bearded barley and planting rice. It is the busiest farming time of the whole year.
Mangjong, around June 6, is when barley harvest and rice transplanting overlap—so busy, the old saying goes, "you'd wet your own feet."
Real heat sets in just ahead of the monsoon rains. Mantises and fireflies begin to appear.
People made cakes and rice from the new barley, and folk belief held that scorching and eating green barley around Mangjong brought a safe year.
Mangjong (Grain in Ear) begins when the Sun reaches 75° of ecliptic longitude, fifteen degrees before the summer solstice point. · First pentad, 螳螂生 — young mantises hatch from their egg cases. · Second pentad, 鵙始鳴 — the shrike (鵙) begins to call. · Third pentad, 反舌無聲 — the fanshe (反舌), a bird said to mimic other birds' songs, falls silent. Mantis egg cases are glued to twigs the previous autumn and the young emerge together in early summer, so Mangjong's first pentad agrees with real natural history. The second and third pentads form a pair: the harsh-voiced shrike starts calling while a bird that sang sweetly all spring goes quiet. Traditional commentary explained this as the bird attuned to yin beginning to call while the bird attuned to yang falls silent. At Mangjong, when people were busiest with barley reaping and rice transplanting, the pentads recorded a changing of the guard among the birds.
Mangjong is green-plum (maesil) picking time. Wash firm green plums, pick off the stems with a toothpick, and layer them with an equal weight of sugar to make maesilcheong, the plum syrup that becomes a base for summer drinks and seasoning. Unripe plums are usually made into syrup or pickles rather than eaten raw. With early-summer cucumbers you can make oiji, cucumbers cured in brine, to bring out when appetites flag in midsummer; tart apricots and Korean cherries (aengdu) also appear briefly around now. Memorial Day on June 6 falls on or right next to Mangjong in many years, which makes that day off a convenient time to tackle labour-intensive preserves like plum syrup and oiji. Before a Mangjong preserving session, sterilise the glass jars in boiling water and let them dry completely.
| Year | Begins at |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Jun 5, 13:10 |
| 2025 | Jun 5, 18:57 |
| 2026 this year | Jun 6, 00:48 |
| 2027 | Jun 6, 06:26 |
| 2028 | Jun 5, 12:16 |
Grain in Ear is one of the twelve jeol (節) that switch the month pillar in Korean Four Pillars astrology. In 2026 the 午 month begins at Jun 6, 00:48. Anyone born before that moment carries the previous branch; anyone born after carries 午.
If your birthday falls near a solar term, the date alone does not settle your month pillar — you need the time of birth as well.
Taking Grain in Ear alone: it fell at Jun 5, 18:57 in 2025 and at Jun 6, 00:48 in 2026 — roughly 5.9 hours later. The date jumps back a day in 2028 because that is a leap year, so February 29 falls before the term begins.
By longitude, Grain in Ear sits at 75° and the next term Summer Solstice at 90° — about 15 days apart.
Check drainage and damp ahead of the monsoon
Enjoy fresh-barley dishes
Stay hydrated through the busy heat
Watch for indoor mold and food poisoning
Adjacent terms:
Explore related fortunes
Grain in Ear is the 9th of the 24 solar terms, falling around June 6. Bearded grains are reaped and rice is planted. "Cut the barley, plant the rice"—the busiest season.
Mangjong means harvesting bearded barley and planting rice. It is the busiest farming time of the whole year.
Check drainage and damp ahead of the monsoon Enjoy fresh-barley dishes Stay hydrated through the busy heat Watch for indoor mold and food poisoning