Why Festivals?

Korea has a yearly calendar of holidays, family rites and local festivals, and people often call them "ancient traditions". Some are old, some are recent, and some are old customs given a new form. This chapter sets out what the words mean, what the course covers and leaves out, how to tell what is documented from what is marketing, and how to follow up what you read.

Three Kinds of Day

The public holidays article begins by saying each holiday belongs to "one or more of three categories", each with "a different legal basis".

Two Calendars at Once

The Korean calendar article says Koreans "now mostly use the Gregorian calendar", adopted in 1896 by Gojong, but that "traditional holidays and age-reckoning for older generations are still based on the traditional lunisolar calendar". The festivals article agrees: "Koreans mostly use the Gregorian calendar... However, traditional holidays are still based on the old calendar." The public holidays article has a section on the solar-calendar dates of Lunar New Year's Day, Buddha's Birthday and Chuseok, which implies those holidays move from year to year against the Gregorian calendar, though I could not read the table.

The Korean calendar article also describes a long history of calendars adopted from China and modified in Korea. Examples include the Xuanming calendar used in the early Goryeo period until 1281, the Shòushí calendar adopted that year, the first Korea-specific system (Ch'ilchŏngsan) created during King Sejong's reign, and the Qing-made Shixian calendar, officially adopted in 1653 but not implemented "in earnest" until 1725. Chapter 2 returns to this. The point for now is that two calendars run side by side, and a date in a source can belong to either one.

New Festivals

The festivals article opens with a claim worth keeping in mind through the whole course: "Many new festivals have originated in South Korea in response to the country's tourism initiatives." It adds that "contributing to this growth is a gradual change to a five-day work week and greater leisure." It points readers who want "older or historical observances" to a separate article on traditional festivals.

For example, the article's entry for the Seoul Lantern Festival says it "was held in 2009 for the first time", along the restored Cheonggyecheon stream, and gives visitor figures for its early years (the article's figures, which I do not verify). So a lantern festival can be recent even though lanterns in Buddhist festivals (Chapter 6) have a long history.

The Idea of Invented Tradition

Because this course is about customs people call old, it helps to know a term from historical writing. The article on invented tradition defines such practices as "presented or perceived as traditional, arising from people starting in the distant past, but which are relatively recent and often consciously invented by historical actors". The concept was "highlighted in the 1983 book The Invention of Tradition, edited by Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger."

• Not an insult. The article distinguishes "invention" from "starting or initiating a tradition that does not then claim to be old". A new festival that says it is new is not an invented tradition in this sense.
• Three purposes. Hobsbawm argues that invented traditions foster social cohesion, legitimise institutions and authority structures, and solidify value systems and beliefs.
• Korean examples. The article lists, among the cases the concept has been applied to, "some Korean martial arts such as Taekwondo". I report this as the article's list, not as a finding, and the planned Taekwondo and Korean Martial Arts course will look at it more closely.
• A caution. The article also says the sharp distinction between "tradition" and "modernity" is "often itself invented", and that "the concept of authenticity is also often questionable". The term is therefore a tool for asking questions, not a way of ranking customs as genuine or fake.

What This Course Covers

• The yearly calendar and the main holidays. Chapters 2 to 5: the calendars, Seollal, Chuseok and the seasonal days.
• Rites, faiths and life stages. Chapters 6 and 7: ancestor rites, Buddhist and other ritual, and ceremonies such as weddings and funerals.
• The modern festival scene. Chapters 8 and 9: how local festivals grew, with a side-by-side look at two, Andong Mask Dance Festival and Boryeong Mud Festival.
• Everyday heritage. Chapter 10: dress, food and home. Chapter 11 is a capstone with a checklist.
• South Korea. The focus is South Korea. For custom shared across the peninsula before 1945 and 1948, I describe it as shared. North Korean practice gets at most a short, factual note from openly available sources.

What It Leaves Out

• Food, literature, K-pop and drama. These have their own courses. They come in only where a festival depends on them.
• Ranking and judging. Customs are described, not ranked, and no group is called more "authentic" than another. Religion is covered as practice and history, not as belief to be judged.
• Dates for a particular year. Dates that move with the lunar calendar are given as rules, not as this year's date, unless a source gives a specific year.
• Travel advice. The course does not recommend places to stay or events to book. Check the organisers for current dates and details.

Documented Custom, Legend and Marketing

Three kinds of source mix together when people write about festivals, and each has its own weakness.

1. Documented custom. A law, a calendar entry, a first-held year and a record of who ran an event can be checked in a named source.
2. Legend. An origin story ("it began when...") may be told for centuries without a document. Treat "it is said that" as a prompt to look for a source.
3. Marketing. Tourism materials describe festivals to attract visitors, and "ancient", "authentic" and "the largest" are selling words. The festivals article's own remark about tourism initiatives is a reason to read them with care.

Where to Read and Visit

Dates and details of festivals change, so I give no list of places. For reading, Wikipedia is a starting point (this course relies on it for facts and flags where it hedges), and each article has references to follow up. For a visit, look up the organisers' own website for current dates, and check them before you travel. You do not need to attend anything in advance; the chapters stand on their own.

Exercises

Next chapter: The Calendar, which looks at the lunar and solar calendars side by side, public holidays versus customary days, and how the official holiday list has changed.