Korean Baizhong Festival
01 · Historical Records
The Baiduan Festival, also known as the Farmers' Festival, is a traditional festival held by Korean farmers on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month to give thanks to the spirits and pray for abundant harvests. It is widely distributed in Korean settlement areas on the north banks of the Yalu and Tumen rivers; the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture is its core area, and the festival is most completely preserved in Kaishantou, Badao, and Sanhe townships of Longjing City and Toudao Township of Helong City. Longjing is a county-level city under the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province, located in the southeastern part of the province at the eastern foot of the Changbai Mountains, facing Korea across the Tumen River to the southeast. It is also the city in China where ethnic Koreans live in the greatest concentration and where Korean folk culture is most completely preserved, and it has long enjoyed the reputations of "home of culture", "home of education", "home of song and dance", "home of the apple pear", and "home of matsutake". As an important traditional festival of the Korean people, the Baiduan Festival has broad popular participation and is passed down from generation to generation through communal transmission. The Korean Baiduan Festival takes as its guiding principle that "farming is the great foundation of the world", reflecting the plain wish of the people for ample food and clothing and for peace and contentment, and bearing the distinct character of an agrarian culture. It encompasses Korean traditional culture in the form of folk belief, music and dance, food, clothing, housing, and transport, and market trade, and is deeply rooted.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
"Baiduan" (the Hundred Seeds) refers to the deity who governs the seeds of all grains. The Baiduan Festival is a communal traditional festival in which Korean farmers gather together for their own enjoyment during the brief slack farming season. Its main practices include the harvest-praying sacrifice, the honoring of the "farmer champion", the hoe-washing play, wrestling, the nongak dance competition, and the Baiduan market; it is a comprehensive folk celebration combining spirit worship with song, dance, and athletic competition. At that time, in the temporary "Baiduan field" market, people exchange what they have for what they lack, carrying on trade in goods and recreational activities in a spectacular and lively scene. Its forms of expression are varied: there are solemn sacrificial rites and cheerful dance performances, traditional agrarian ceremonies and fierce athletic contests, and it holds considerable historical, cultural, and artistic value. It has also played a positive role in strengthening social cohesion and in preserving harmony and stability in the border regions.
The prayer for a good harvest
The festival opens by offering to the deity of the hundred grains, seeking thanks for the harvest and the plain wish for full granaries and safety at home.
Crowning the best farmer
After the offering the best farmer of the year is named before the assembly, establishing a visible standard of diligence in place of verbal exhortation.
The hoe-washing play
In the hoe-washing play the farming tool becomes a stage prop, washed, chanted and acted, turning labour itself into the holiday’s entertainment.
Wrestling and farmers’ dance contests
Wrestling and farmers’ dance contests carry the festival into its fiercer and livelier register, drums driving the long drum dance and a ring forming around the bouts.
The hundred-grain market
A temporary market is opened for trade and pleasure, where villages that seldom meet in the field come together on one day of the season.
Gathering in the agricultural slack
Held on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month during the slack season, the festival can be staged anywhere, its informality part of its charm.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Baiduan Festival is widely distributed in Korean settlement areas on the north banks of the Yalu and Tumen rivers; the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture is the core area, and the festival is most completely preserved in Kaishantou, Badao, and Sanhe townships of Longjing City and Toudao Township of Helong City. Longjing City lies in southeastern Jilin at the eastern foot of the Changbai Mountains, facing Korea across the Tumen River to the southeast, and is the city in China where ethnic Koreans live in the greatest concentration and where folk culture is most completely preserved. Each village, grouped by township, chooses its own date, so the dates differ while the procedures remain the same; thus one and the same festival may be celebrated for several consecutive days across the region without conflict.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Baiduan Festival takes as its principle that farming is the great foundation of the world, praying for ample food and clothing and for peace and contentment; the character of agrarian culture is unmistakable. It gathers folk belief, music and dance, food, clothing, housing and transport, and market trade into a single day — a concentrated revelation of the underlying colors of Korean culture. In strengthening social cohesion and preserving harmony and stability in the border regions, it has also played a positive role. The Baiduan Festival is passed down from generation to generation through communal transmission; its participants are many but not fixed in number, and it is held every year. The weight of the festival does not rest on any single inheritor but on everyone present.
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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