Korean Dragon Boat Festival

The success of South Korea’s Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival’s application as a World Heritage Site has hurt our self-esteem. It is conceivable that a new round of “World Heritage Application” activities should be launched without delay. However, since it is a heritage, it is formed by history after all. Who belongs to it in history should be very clear and definite; as for who inherits it well now, and how well it is preserved and protected, I am afraid it is more important - historical Not all can be effective evidence of actual ownership.

Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival are the three major traditional festivals in Korea. The Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival is a celebration held to inherit and carry forward the traditional cultural customs of the Dragon Boat Festival. It was designated as South Korea's No. 13 Important Intangible Cultural Heritage and Important Intangible Cultural Relics in 1967. On January 25, 2005 It is designated as the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. Now the Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival has gradually developed into an international traditional cultural celebration. The Gangneung Dano Festival begins with the Daegwallyeong God Sacrifice. During the event, various witchcraft and sacrificial ceremonies will be held, as well as traditional games and experience activities such as rope skipping and mask making, as well as wonderful witchcraft performances and mask making. Dance, agricultural music performances, etc.

The Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival in South Korea has long been famous. During the annual Dragon Boat Festival, there are millions of tourists from South Korea and all over the world. What attracts so many participants and visitors? ——This cannot but be attributed to the fact that the Gangneung City Government of South Korea attaches great importance to folk intangible culture and effectively protects it. It is this move that makes a folk festival a symbol of Gangneung culture and a symbol of the Korean national spirit; it becomes an intangible cultural heritage for human enjoyment; it becomes a window for the outside world to understand Korean culture and the people of Gangneung. The Korean Dragon Boat Festival mentioned in the Korean “World Heritage List” incident refers to the Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival.

Different from Chinese Dragon Boat Festival customs

The Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival is indeed an interesting cultural phenomenon in East Asia's "Chinese Character Cultural Circle". In terms of festival customs, although the Dragon Boat Festival originated in China, in the long-term spread and international exchanges, it has been absorbed and accepted by the countries and ethnic groups surrounding China, and placed in their own cultural soil, forming various national traditions. , the unique festival customs of various ethnic groups.

If we look back at the prototype of the Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival in South Korea, there is no doubt that it was influenced by Chinese culture. The interpretation of "Dragon Boat Festival" is recorded in many Korean classics, and this interpretation is the same as the Chinese concept. For example, South Korea also calls the fifth day of May "Chongwu", "Chongwu", "Duanyang" and "May Day". The unique Korean word calls "Dragon Boat Festival" as "Sunday", which means the day of God. According to traditional customs, on the Dragon Boat Festival, people eat "Aizi cake" and drink Yiren juice. Women wash their hair with calamus soup or drink calamus water, or use calamus dew to make up, which is called "calamus makeup". Cinnabar charms were affixed to the doorposts of noble ladies' homes to ward off evil spirits, and monarchs and ministers gave each other Dragon Boat Festival fans to express their congratulations.

Many customs of the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival, such as planting mugwort and calamus, eating rice dumplings, drinking realgar wine, wearing purses, carrying five poisons, tying colorful threads, rowing dragon boats, commemorating Qu Yuan, etc., do not exist in Korean Dragon Boat Festival customs. However, the Dragon Boat Festival in Gangneung, South Korea also contains rich content, with sacrifices, performances, and entertainment being its main contents. The sacrificial ceremony has preserved its complete form and content, and can be said to be the core of the Gangneung Dano Festival in South Korea. This is also the main reason why South Korea’s Gangneung Dano Festival was designated as Korea’s No. 13 Intangible Cultural Property in 1967.

The sacrificial rituals during the Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival mainly come from myths and legends. The gods they worship are the "Daegwallyeong Mountain God" and the Dong (Village) City God. There are as many as twelve deified figures, such as Jin Yushin, Guoshi City God "Ban "The Imperial Master of Japan", the daughter of the Imperial Master of Daegwallyeong, Chenghuang Zheng's daughter, etc.

well preserved traditions

Gangneung Dano Festival is one of the most well-preserved traditional festival customs in South Korea. Originally, the Dragon Boat Festival custom existed in many areas of Korea, but later gradually disappeared with the development of society. Only Gangneung area has preserved it intact.

In the Gangneung area, the Dragon Boat Festival has complicated sacrificial rituals. If you count from the "Eve Festival" to welcome the gods, it usually takes five days and nights; if you count from the "Mountain God Festival" to the end of sending off the gods, it will take more than 20 days; up to one month.

The process of Gangneung Dano Festival begins with brewing the sacred wine. On April 5th of the lunar calendar, people use the rice and rice malt distributed by the old Gangneung government office to brew sacred wine to worship the gods and drink in preparation for the Dragon Boat Festival; on April 15th, the "Daegwallyeongsan God Festival" and "National Wine Festival" are held. "Shichenghuang Sacrifice". After the sacrifice, a piece of sacred wood is cut, and people hang the green and red satin on it. Then, under the guidance of the sacred tree, they form a procession to welcome the gods. In the evening of the third day of the fifth lunar month, they return to the Jiangling Kingdom's Chenghuang Temple. (Daughter of the Zheng family) accepted the "Fengan Sacrifice", which is the "eve sacrifice" of the Dragon Boat Festival. After the sacrifice, the tablets of the Daegwallyeong Mountain God and the King’s Seonghuang were sent to the Namdaecheon Open-Air Sacrifice. From the fourth to the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, a "libation offering" is held every morning. The sacrificial rituals of Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival are divided into two types: "Confucian sacrificial ritual" and "Shamanistic sacrificial ritual". Confucian rituals are performed in the form of reading Chinese prayers. The content of the rituals involves removing disasters and bringing good fortune, health and tranquility, curing diseases, good harvests in agriculture and fishery, and prosperity of livestock and poultry, etc. After the Confucianism Festival, the "Shamanistic Sacrifice" accompanied by singing, dancing and drama performances began until late at night.

The Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival has a variety of activities. In addition to designated rituals (making sacred wine - a ceremony to send off to the gods), shamanism festivals, official slave mask performances, agricultural music competitions, children's agricultural music competitions, and Heshan Ododai Ballads (these are all intangible cultural properties designated by the region or the country ), there are many folk activities, such as Chinese poetry writing competition, local folk song singing competition, national folk tune singing competition, tug of war, wrestling, swing, archery, pot throwing, etc.; celebration activities, such as fireworks games, Dragon Boat Festival fireworks, etc. Lanterns, etc.; night activities, such as traditional Chinese music performances, singing and singing, etc.; art activities are even more colorful. There is also commodity trading known as "chaos".

Now, foreign folk art groups are invited to perform during the Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival to enhance artistic exchanges and friendship between countries. This year, those participating in the Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival performances include the Ji Opera Troupe from Jilin Province in China and the Jilin Opera Troupe, which is listed on the World Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Chinese Kun Opera.

The Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival in South Korea is a large-scale celebration that takes the Dragon Boat Festival as an opportunity and closely combines Korean people's beliefs and agricultural activities. What is different from the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is that it creates rich and colorful contents and forms in the Korean nation's own way, combining the needs and aesthetics of the Korean people. Its rituals, whether they are "Confucian rituals" or "witchcraft rituals", have maintained their original form. This original form is where the historical, cultural and aesthetic value of the Dragon Boat Festival lies, and is the basis for being listed as an intangible cultural heritage designated by the Korean state.

However, folk culture is constantly changing. As the times advance, many new contents will naturally be added. This is also very obvious in the Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival. The organizers of the Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival are very clear that "living for tomorrow, fervent desires and ideals are the source of human life." As a folk event, the annual Dragon Boat Festival tries to add new activities as much as possible while maintaining the tradition.

This year's seventh academic conference of the International Asia Folklore Society was held during the Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival. As a major part of the Dragon Boat Festival, more than 70 scholars from nine countries and regions including China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Russia, and Switzerland conducted academic discussions and exchanges on the protection of Dragon Boat Festival customs and intangible cultural heritage; Europe, Folk art troupes from many countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America were invited to perform, showing that Gangneung, South Korea, uses the Dragon Boat Festival as the carrier of cultural activities and opens her broad mind to the world.

As the mayor of Jiangling said, "Just like people have hometowns, culture comes from folk customs; just as hometowns have feelings, folk customs, the source of diversity, must be respected." They believe that "the most regional is the most global." , the diversity of world cultures is a need for human life.

[Edit this paragraph]Related disputes

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month is commonly known as the "Dragon Boat Festival". Duan means "beginning" and "beginning". The fifth day of the Lunar New Year can be called the Dragon Boat Festival. The lunar calendar uses earthly branches to record the months. The first month is Yin, the second month is Mao, and the fifth month is Wu. Therefore, May is called Wu month. "Five" and "Wu" are connected, and "Five" is the Yang number, so the Dragon Boat Festival is also called the Wu month. Named Duanwu, Chongwu, Duanyang, Zhongtian, etc. Judging from historical records, the word "Dragon Boat Festival" was first seen in "Fengtu Ji" written by Zhou Chu of Jin Dynasty: "Dragon Boat Festival in midsummer, cooking millet with duck horns". The Dragon Boat Festival is a traditional festival for the Han people in my country. The essential activities on this day gradually evolved into: eating rice dumplings, racing dragon boats, hanging calamus and mugwort leaves, smoking atractylodes and angelica, and drinking realgar wine. It is said that eating rice dumplings and racing dragon boats are to commemorate Qu Yuan, so after liberation, the Dragon Boat Festival was named "Poet's Day" to commemorate Qu Yuan. As for hanging calamus and moxa leaves, smoking atractylodes and angelica, and drinking realgar wine, it is said to suppress evil spirits.

To this day, the Dragon Boat Festival is still a very popular and grand festival among the Chinese people. The Dragon Boat Festival is now a national statutory holiday. The state attaches great importance to the protection of intangible cultural heritage. On May 20, 2006, this folk custom was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists.

The Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival declared by South Korea was officially designated as a "human legend and intangible heritage work" by UNESCO on the 24th, Paris time. The once heated dispute between China and South Korea over the Dragon Boat Festival's application for World Heritage ended with South Korea's victory. In response to this, experts said in an interview with reporters: Intangible heritage belongs to all mankind, and South Korea's successful application is not a bad thing.

Some experts pointed out that South Korea’s Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival is actually not the same thing as our Dragon Boat Festival. The Korean Dragon Boat Festival actually consists of dance, shamanic sacrifices, folk art displays, etc. This is completely different from the Chinese eating rice dumplings, rowing dragon boats, and commemorating Qu Yuan. The only similarity is the time frame, which is all held during the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival. Held during the festival. However, this does not reduce the psychological impact of South Korea's victory on the Chinese people.

Malicious cybersquatting of South Korea’s “Dragon Boat Festival.cn”

Yao Jinbo, a well-known domestic domain name investor, redeemed the "Dragon Boat Festival.cn" domain name at a high price of US$30,000 and was willing to donate it free of charge.

According to the Beijing Entertainment News, Yao Jinbo spent US$30,000 out of his own pocket to redeem "Dragon Boat Festival.cn" on October 8th. Yao Jinbo was formerly the vice president of Wanwang. On the eve of his resignation, on October 8, the original registrant of "Dragon Boat Festival.cn", YunHeeCo, Inc, R.O.K., sent a domain name sale power of attorney to Wanwang via mailbox, stating that Due to the company's strategic change, it is temporarily unable to effectively develop and utilize the Chinese domain name, and Wanwang has been entrusted with the full responsibility for the transfer business of "Dragon Boat Festival.cn". This shows that the registrant hopes to sell it for a profit.

After Yao Jinbo, who was the vice president of Wanwang at the time, heard the news, he felt that it was necessary to buy the domain name in time to prevent China's traditional culture from being lost overseas. So he contacted the Korean company and finally decided to redeem it for US$30,000. Yesterday, I entered "Dragon Boat Festival.cn" and the domain name pointed to the 58.com website that Yao Jinbo established after his resignation.

But it didn't end there. Yao Jinbo didn't want to occupy this domain name for a long time that had nothing to do with his local classified information website business. He said, "If relevant government departments such as Hunan Yueyang and Zigui can effectively develop and utilize Dragon Boat Festival.cn and promote China's traditional culture, I will donate this domain name free of charge."

This time, the Korean company easily made $30,000. However, according to Yao Jinbo, in fact, well-known Korean companies, specialties, culture and other domain names have also been registered by European and American countries, making Koreans increasingly pay attention to the online protection of traditional culture, corporate brands, etc. Currently, with more than 46 million Koreans, The world’s 26th largest population and the number of domain names exceed 620,000, ranking 11 in the world. Industry insiders believe that not only the Dragon Boat Festival, but also other traditional festivals and even national quintessence, how to defend the position of the Internet deserves the attention of all walks of life.

Hunan Dragon Boat Festival Festival

Recently, news came from the Miluo River in Yueyang, Hunan, where Qu Yuan sank in Huaisha. The carefully prepared Dragon Boat Festival activities there will carry the banner of "Sacrifice to Qu". The theme is called "Dragon Boat Festival 'Original' Festival", and the "origin" is taken from Qu Yuan's name. The meaning of "original", the "source" of the Dragon Boat Festival, the "source" of culture, and the "source" of spirit.

According to reports, this event known as the "Dragon Boat Festival" was deeply involved by the media, and verified various materials. On the basis of fully respecting the millennium folk customs of Miluo, the local ancient sacrificial culture and dragon boat folk culture were excavated and sorted out. June 1 Hunan Satellite TV will broadcast the event live from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 on the 1th day. Various signs seem to indicate that China’s Yueyang Miluo “Dragon Boat Festival ‘Original’ Festival” is intended to challenge the South Korea’s Gangneung “Dragon Boat Festival” and build momentum for being declared a world cultural heritage first.

No one in the local area has spoken out about this intention, but we can smell it from the content of the event. In the "Dragon Boat Festival "Original" Festival" activity, the "Festival of Qu" ceremony takes up nearly 40 minutes. As the carrier of Quzi's morals, articles and integrity, the Miluo Quzi Temple has been silent for a long time. This sacrificial ceremony will be primitive, simple, solemn and solemn. "The Dragon Boat Festival is approaching, and dragon boats from all directions are sailing across the Luo River. The beans are high and in the Quzi Ancestral Hall, and the scholars and common people are united in worshiping the faithful." ------- From the memorial text of the elders of the local folk culture, The sacrificial links of ancient rituals are followed everywhere: "the sound of ancient music, the offering of three animals, and the knocking of dragon heads for sacrifice..."; from carefully selecting nine craftsmen to stealing wood and carving dragon heads according to the ancient local customs, and rushing to make sacrificial dragon boats day and night. . In the "Dragon Boat Festival" event, the famous Taiwanese poet Lieutenant General Yu Guang led an audience of 300,000 people to recite his new poem "Miluo River God" specially written for this ceremony: "The end of the martyr is the starting point of the poet? In the past you Wentian, today you asked the river, but the river did not answer, only the sad wind blew across the water, and it was still Miluo as it wandered westward..."

As early as June 6, the large-scale warm-up event of the "Dragon Boat Festival" "Qianli Zigui Zongguan Love" also opened grandly. Hunan Satellite TV and Hubei Economic TV jointly hyped: A simple wooden boat sailed from Hubei, Qu Yuan's birthplace. Starting from Zigui, we stopped in Jingzhou, relied on Jianli, crossed Junshan to Miluo, and from the Yangtze River to Dongting. We collected rice dumplings and poems in memory of Qu Yuan spontaneously sent by the people along the river, all the way to the Miluo River, where they threw rice dumplings into the river and burned poems and poems in memory of Qu Yuan. For several days in a row, sending rice dumplings, poems and articles to commemorate Qu Yuan became a hot topic wherever the wooden boat went. An online public memorial on Sina.com and Hunan Satellite TV websites is also in full swing.

On June 11, Zhang Yiwu and other cultural celebrities will meet to discuss topics such as Miluo's "Dragon Boat Festival 'Original' Festival" application for world cultural heritage. In the early preparations, the organizers also tried to invite officials from UNESCO to observe the event on site. Historian He Guangyue once said that Miluo's "Dragon Boat Festival "original" festival has the unique charm of being declared a world cultural heritage.

In fact, the media controversy started last year when the "Dragon Boat Festival" in Gangneung, South Korea, was to be declared a world cultural heritage. All walks of life in the country, especially Yueyang, reacted strongly. The whole people of Yueyang mobilized to defend the Dragon Boat Festival and organized cultural relics and history experts to prepare for the application. Preparations are still underway.

It is reported that in May 2004, Yueyang successfully registered the "Dragon Boat Festival" Internet address. In the past few days, there have been rumors in the media that "China and South Korea plan to jointly apply for the Dragon Boat Festival as a world intangible cultural heritage", but nothing seems to have shaken the Yueyang Miluo River "Dragon Boat Festival's original" trial and South Korea's Gangneung "Dragon Boat Festival" "A determination to compete.

It is also understood that on June 8, an inspection team from the Folk Culture Protection Center of the Ministry of Culture went to Zigui, Hubei to inspect Yichang, Hubei Province’s declaration of China’s intangible cultural heritage during the Dragon Boat Festival. This is also an important step in Yichang’s intention to declare the world’s intangible cultural heritage.