Mid-Autumn Festival
01 · Historical Records
The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the four major traditional festivals of the Korean ethnic group, called 'Chuseok' (Qiuxi) or 'Gapbi' (Jiapai). The term 'Chuseok' (literally 'autumn evening') derives from the ancient custom of the Son of Heaven 'sacrificing to the morning sun in spring and to the evening moon in autumn'. In the Korean-populated areas of Kaiyuan City, Changtu County and Xifeng County in Tieling City, Liaoning Province, many traditional Chuseok customs have been passed down from generation to generation. As to the origin of the Chuseok festival, the Samguk Sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms) of the 12th century records that in the ninth year of King Yuri, the third king of Silla (32 CE), each of the six ministries sent two court ladies to lead the women in two teams; from the sixteenth day of the seventh month they held a hemp-spinning contest, and on the fifteenth day of the eighth month victory was decided by the quantity of cloth woven, the losing side treating the winning side with fine wine and fine food; this game was called 'Gapbi' (Jiapai). The Tieling Korean Chuseok festival involves large numbers of participants and strong interaction; it carries the historical and cultural memory and emotions of the Korean ethnic group, and is characterised by its ethnic, popular, recreational and artistic qualities. It reflects the beliefs and spiritual pursuits of the local Korean people, and serves as a cultural space for the practical transmission of folk song and dance, folk games and athletic competition; it plays a positive role in promoting ethnic unity and social harmony and in enriching the cultural life of the people.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
With the development of modern industry, folk cloth-weaving contests are no longer popular, but the Korean people of Tieling still pass on the other traditional customs of Chuseok. These include worshipping the ancestors: the whole family goes to the ancestral graves to 'cut the grass and inspect the tombs' (facao xingmu), laying out food and burning incense in sacrificial rites to express respect and remembrance for the departed, and family members hold the tea rite (chali) for the ancestors at the clan head's house. When the family gathers in celebration, they cook rice from the year's new grain, brew rice wine, wrap songpyeon, and make such traditional foods as steamed cakes and tteok from rice, glutinous rice and red beans, all shared in reunion. After the tea rite comes the 'yellow ox game', in which a straw mat is laid over the 'old yellow ox' and it is led around the village, and the game of lighting the 'moon house' built of pine branches or straw. There are also moon-gazing, moon worship, prayers and wishes, expressing joy at the harvest and hope for the future. The folk song and dance of the festival are likewise rich: the Chuseok harvest celebration must include the farmers' dance (nongak), and the women also hold hands and dance in the moonlight the combined song-and-dance 'round moon game' and the folk dance 'Gangjiang Shuiyue Lai' (moonlight on the rivers), adding a romantic and festive atmosphere to the festival.
Clearing the grave and paying respects
The whole family goes to the ancestral graves to clear them, mend the soil and burn incense before offerings of the new harvest.
Tea rite at the clan house
A clan tea rite at the ancestral house, where elders serve tea in strict order to assemble the lineage.
The old yellow ox game
An old working ox is covered with a straw mat and led around the village, honouring the beast that tills the fields.
Building the moon house
Children build a moon-shaped hut from pine branches or straw, light it from within and lead the adults around it.
Round-the-moon dance and the river-flow moon dance
Two night-time dance forms: the women join hands in a circle around the moon, and a leader-and-choir dance is performed with slow, long phrases.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Chuseok in Tieling is most exuberant in the Korean-populated areas of Kaiyuan, Changtu and Xifeng; each village, following the old rule, goes up the mountain on the day itself, first pulling all the weeds from the graves, then laying out food and burning incense; the village elders then perform the tea rite at the clan head's house, merging ancestral worship and family reunion into one major event. In diet there are slight differences between north and south: the plains rely chiefly on rice, with new rice, songpyeon, tteok and steamed cakes the four most common; the mountain areas adjust these with miscellaneous grains and mountain produce. The new rice of the past year is used on the day itself, and is regarded as the offering that shows the greatest sincerity. Song and dance form the second half of the festival. By day the young people gather in the farmyard to dance the farmers' dance; after dark the women hold hands in the courtyard to dance the round moon game, with combined song-and-dance pieces such as 'Gangjiang Shuiyue Lai' inserted in between; the children, meanwhile, are taken up the mountain to see the moon house — a small hut built on the spot from pine branches or straw, with torches lit and a walk made around it.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Mid-Autumn Festival · Mid-Autumn Festival · Mid-Autumn Festival · Mid-Autumn Festival · Mid-Autumn Festival · Mid-Autumn Festival · Mid-Autumn Festival.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The hemp-spinning contest was originally an autumn-harvest comparison of the weaving age. As recorded in the Samguk Sagi, the contest of the ninth year of King Yuri decided victory by the quantity of cloth woven, with the losing side treating the winning side with fine wine and fine food; this form of play has long left no material trace in Tieling, but the logic it left behind — 'competing on the results of one's labour' — has survived in another medium: the drum-stomping, antiphonal singing and farmers' dance at the festival remain places where young men and women display their skill and their feelings. The Tieling City Korean Culture and Art Centre organises rehearsals and performances by festival, compiling the stages of ancestor worship, the tea rite, the yellow ox game and the moon house into replicable procedures, so that the people scattered across the villages can celebrate in similar fashion on the same day.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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