Hangul 모도 Revised Romanization Modo | Hanja 茅島 McCune–Reischauer Modo | |
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Modo Island is a small island in Jindo County, South Jeolla province, South Korea, just off the southwest corner of the Korean peninsula. It is located to the south-east of Jindo Island and is about 1.1 km long and 300 meters wide.
The tide-related sea level variations result in a local phenomenon (a "Moses Miracle") when a land pass 2.9 km long and 10–40 meters wide opens for an hour between Modo and Jindo islands. The event occurs approximately twice a year, around April–June. It had long been celebrated in a local festival called "Jindo's Sea Way", but was largely unknown to the world until 1975, when the French ambassador Pierre Randi described the phenomenon in a French newspaper. Nowadays, nearly half a million foreign and local tourists attend the event annually. It is accompanied by local festivals which include Ganggangsuwollae (Korean traditional circle dance), Ssitkim-gut (a shaman ritual, consoling the souls of the dead), Deul Norae (traditional farmers' songs), Manga (burial ceremony songs), Jindo dog show, Buknori (drum performance) and fireworks.