The Festival Boom
Korean Festivals and Traditional Life
Course 1 · Chapter 8 · The Festival Boom
Chapter 1 said that many Korean festivals are new. This chapter looks at that claim through three examples: a heritage-listed festival that was revived, a lantern festival created for a tourism campaign, and a small regional festival built on a half-remembered ferry route. It also follows up a promise from Chapter 5, to check how the Gangneung Dano Festival is described.
The Broad Claim
The Festivals in South Korea article opens: "Many new festivals have originated in South Korea in response to the country's tourism initiatives. Contributing to this growth is a gradual change to a five-day work week and greater leisure." It gives no count of festivals and no dates for this growth, so I treat it as a stated trend and not a measured one. The article's own entries are also dated: its Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival entry gives 2012 dates, and its Seoul Lantern Festival entry describes November on Cheonggyecheon, which the newer article says is no longer the usual time.
A festival built on a forgotten route
The article's entry for the Jjokbae (Jokbae) Festival in Hwacheon shows how a festival can be made from a memory. It says a ferry route for salt ran between Incheon and Hwacheon in the Goryeo period, that dams have ended the water routes, and that "nobody remembers the ferry and the boats in Hwacheon at past any more". The festival, "started" in 2003, "reproduce[s] the images of boats" from that past, with a boat-building contest, valley hiking and farm stays. That is one entry's account of a festival whose theme is a lost practice and whose programme is mostly recreation. It is not a claim of continuity with anything older. The same article's Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival is described as held each January on the strength of the town's ice conditions, with no older tradition claimed.
A Revived Rite: Gangneung Danoje
Chapter 5 said the Gangneung Dano Festival is described as UNESCO-designated and promised to verify it. The Gangneung Danoje article says so directly: "Since 1967, it has been a National Intangible Cultural Heritage of South Korea, and since 2005 it has been on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity." In the History section, it is "National Important Intangible Cultural Property No. 13". That settles the Chapter 5 flag, as the article's claim.
| Topic | What the article says |
|---|---|
| Length | "Traditionally held for 47 days", from the 20th day of the 3rd lunar month to the 7th day of the 5th. The main events run from the 1st to the 7th day of the 5th month; earlier stages include ritual brewing, rites at a mountain-god shrine, a procession and a "marriage of the gods". |
| Purpose | "To appease the local gods, and in turn to receive their blessings." |
| Mix | Confucian, shamanic and Buddhist elements; the main stage hosts shamanic rituals, mask plays and markets. |
| Origins | "Unclear": "at least 400 years old, and possibly... over 1000 years old". A definite attestation is from 1603 (a scholar-official's 1611 text). |
| Colonial period | Repressed in 1910–1945, but merchants "were able to convince colonial authorities" to let some rites continue. |
| After the Korean War | Research and recreation from the 1950s, using "Records from a Japanese survey in the 1930s and interviews from elders". |
| The state | The group organising it "reportedly clashed" with a government "in general unfavorable to folk customs"; the government "reportedly became more open" in the late 1970s; folk customs became "sources of pride" in the 1980s; federal and state support rose in the 1990s and 2000s. |
| Scale | "623,000 visitors to the festival in 2023"; 6,527 households donated 16,800 kg of rice for the ritual brewing that year. |
A New Festival: the Seoul Lantern Festival
The Seoul Lantern Festival is a useful contrast. The article says it began in 2009, "to celebrate the 'Visit Korea Year 2010 to 2012'", and the Festivals article adds that the first one ran alongside the restored Cheonggyecheon stream. Lanterns link it to Buddha's Birthday (Chapter 6), but nothing in either article claims a ritual origin.
- Growth, by the articles' figures. The 2009 festival drew "over 520,000" visitors by the Festivals article, which gives 12 days; the Seoul Lantern article says the first festival lasted 5 days. The two articles disagree on the length. For 2010, the Seoul article says 2.3 million visitors, including 370,000 foreign tourists; for 2014, 3.14 million, with 630,000 foreign visitors.
- Change. The festival moved from November on Cheonggyecheon to December in Gwanghwamun Plaza from 2022 in one account, while the article's 2024 and 2025 sections place it on Cheonggyecheon again. The article is inconsistent about the venue, and I cannot say which is right.
- Themes. They change every year: the history of Seoul, Baekje, world heritage, light art. The theme is chosen, not inherited.
The Heritage System
The Intangible cultural heritage of South Korea article gives the frame for Gangneung's listing. It says national designations are maintained by the Cultural Heritage Administration, that there is a separate local-level designation administered by provinces or cities, and that "practices of particular importance can be designated as Important Intangible Cultural Properties". The system comes from "the 1962 Cultural Property Protection Law", which "was modelled on the Japanese 1950 Law", and the article says these early initiatives "influenced UNESCO" in its 2003 Convention. It says that as of 2025, twenty-three South Korean elements are inscribed on the UNESCO list. I did not read the 1962 law, the Convention or the Cultural Heritage Administration's own material, so I cannot say how designation works in practice.
Reading a Festival Claim
- Who started it, and why? A ritual's own community, a city tourism office and a campaign slogan produce different festivals, and the sources say which is which only in some cases.
- Continuous or reconstructed? "Revived from surveys and elders" and "never stopped" are different claims.
- Is a visitor figure comparable? A count of attendees at a free outdoor festival is not a count of participants in a ritual.
- Is the article current? Dates, venues and visitor counts in a list article can be out of date.
Exercises
Give the two designations the Gangneung Danoje article gives, with years, and say which flag from Chapter 5 this settles. Then name two things the article says about how the festival was revived.
Say when and why the Seoul Lantern Festival started, and give one disagreement between the two articles about it. Then describe the Jinju complaint and how it ended.
Explain how the Jjokbae Festival differs from Gangneung Danoje in what it claims about the past. Then give two questions you would ask before calling any of the three festivals in this chapter "traditional".
Quick Reference
- Boom claim: new festivals from tourism initiatives, a five-day work week and leisure; no counts given
- Gangneung Danoje: national designation 1967 (No. 13); UNESCO list 2005; attested 1603; revived after the colonial period and war; 623,000 visitors in 2023
- Seoul Lantern Festival: from 2009, for Visit Korea Year; themes change yearly; Jinju complained it copied the Namgang Yudeung Festival (from 2000)
- Jjokbae Festival: from 2003; recreates a forgotten salt ferry route
- Heritage system: 1962 Cultural Property Protection Law, modelled on Japan's 1950 law; national and local designations; 23 UNESCO elements as of 2025
- Check: 2009 festival length, the Seoul venue, "13th" Dano count, all visitor figures
Next chapter: Two Festivals Up Close, which compares the Andong Mask Dance Festival and the Boryeong Mud Festival, and says plainly if either is poorly documented.