Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

China Temple Fair

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Studen/Artsit
Residence: Los Angeles
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

The informant is my high school friend (referred to as LM) who is American and lived in China for 4 years (2 during high school and 2 after high school). She lived with a Chinese host family and then lived on her own in Beijing for 2 years. I asked her what one of the favorite experiences she had in China was and she explained this festival.

 

LM: “There was this temple fair that is a festival kind of and definitely a really fun social activity. The temple fair I went to took place when I was living in Beijing and it’s always around Chinese New Year. So basically I went to one called the Ditan Temple Fair.  The temple fairs are all usually on the open ground in or near the temple. Some are held only during the Spring Festival. Although there are a bunch of different fairs, they are all kind of the same thing.

 

Farmers and merchants sell their produce and antiques and stuff. It is almost like a flea market and you can always barter. There is a lot of jade out and there are always fresh flowers. Snacks are made and people sing and dance and there’s even storytelling going on. It’s a lot going on and it’s really fun. Most people are out and buying things or just watching the performances.”

 

Hearing about this festival seems very communal and interactive. In comparison to many other festival events and new years that seem to be less religious or less structured. It is obviously sacred because it is done outside of festivals, but it seems like a very free and relaxed experience.

 

 

Gang-gang-sul-lae

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 53
Occupation: Doctor
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: March 27th, 2018
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English, Mandarin

Story 

Gang-gang-sul-lae is a Korean folk dance that is exclusively performed by women of the community. It is also known as Ganggangsuwollae (강강수월래 in Hangeul/ 强羌水越來 in Hanja, which are Traditional Chinese Characters. It is a traditional dance where group of women hold hands in a circle, spinning around and singing. 

My mother, who I collected this data from said: “When I learned the history of Gang-gang-sul-lae in elementary school, I was told that admiral Yi Sun-sin (이순신) , during the Japanese invasion of Korea in the 16th Century, devised a plan to dress all the women into men’s clothing and dance around in circles. Then the Japanese soliders thought that admiral Yi had a big army and retreated in intimidation.”

Context

I remember first seeing Gang-gang-sul-lae in the field of my public school when celebrating Chuseok (추석/ Mid-Autumn Festival). It was during 2005, which was the same year when I started attending elementary school. I remember my mother and I dressing up in Hanbok (한복/ Traditional Korean Attire) and having a valuable cultural experience provided by the local community. This traditional dance has significance to my mother and many other Korean women as they have partaken in Gang-gang-sul-lae themselves. Because my mother now resides in Los Angeles and has not performed the Gang-gang-sul-lae for over a decade, singing and spinning around the living room while holding her son’s hand apparently brought back a “joyous memory”. 

Analysis

Despite being well known through its role it allegedly served in the 1592-1598 Japanese invasions of Korea, Gang-gang-sul-lae’s role in modern day society serves as a symbol of Korean culture and ‘heritage’. It is rare to see youth to play though performing the dance, it can always be seen at cultural events, which are especially prevalent during traditional holidays such as the first full moon of the lunar calendar and the mid-autumn festival.

Chil-seok (칠석)

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Shanghai, China
Performance Date: March 29th, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean, Mandarin

Story

 

Chil-seok is seventh day of the seventh month on the Korean lunar calendar.

“There was Jik-nyeo(직녀), a daughter of a god, and she was very good at weaving clothes. Across the milky way, there was Gyeon-wu (견우) who herded cows. Jik-nyeo fell in love and got married with Gyeon-wu. However, they started not doing their jobs of herding sheep and weaving clothes. So the infuriated king separated the two, only allowing them to meet once a year. On the seventh day of the seventh month, they were prepared to meet but had no way of getting over the milky way. So a murder of crows clustered together to form a bridge for the two. They would meet for a day and then have to return after. If it rains during Chil-seok, its because the couple is crying over the fact that they will not be able to see each other for another year. Also, the crows then have bald heads because their heads were stepped on.”

 

Context

 

I collected this from my high school friend who lives in Shanghai, China. Despite living abroad, I was amazed when I went over to his house because his bookshelf was filled with Korean children’s folktales. He stated in the interview that because he moved abroad to Shanghai at a young age of three, his parents feared that he would lose to ability to speak Korean or not be able to identify renowned traditional stories. So his father made sure to always buy books when he traveled back to Korea for business and carry them back in suitcases. Because he is the youngest child from both the maternal and paternal side of the family, he states that he has no younger cousins to give the books to so he plans to make sure his children read the same books as he did.

Chil-seok has significant for my friend and I because on the Chil-seok of 2016, which was August 9th, I had to leave to South Korea and we were mentioning how the situation was like when Jik-nyeo and Gyeon-wu has to split for another year. However, as it did not rain on that day, we decided to think that we would see each other soon enough.

 

Analysis

 

This is a legend as although not on earth, it specifically mentions a real existing place: the milky way.

This story has a moral of punishment for not doing work. Although the king had allowed them to get married together, he decided to split up the couple when they stopped doing their work. Stories like these allow readers to vicariously live through punishments for the crimes that they did not commit, which in this case is for not doing the assigned job. Because readers have lived through the punishment of being split from their loved one, they are more likely to stay focused on their tasks.

 

Annotate

Qixi Festival – China

Tanabata Matsuri – Japan, but July 7th on the solar calendar, unlike other east Asian countries that celebrates this holiday.

The Secret Cow Level in Diablo

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2nd, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean, Mandarin

Story

 

“There was a rumor where if in Diablo, if you clicked on a certain cow in Tristram a specific amount of times, you can go to a secret cow level that was just full of cows.”

 

Context

 

I collected this from my older brother, who has been an avid gamer with me since as long as I can remember. When we went abroad to Vancouver, Canada, to study English, we started playing on Diablo on the desktop computer at the house of his homestay. This was in 2006, when Diablo II was already out. By the time we played the game, the game developers have already debunked the rumors and created a secret cow level in Diablo II as a tribute to this rumor. However, despite knowing that the rumor was not true, we would consistently try to click on the lone cow of Tristram different amount of times, hoping that the rumors were actually true and we could witness that awesome moment.

Blizzard Games, the company that created Diablo, continues to create more Cow Levels in new games in the franchise.

 

 

Analysis

 

This collected data emphasizes the propagative nature of folklore. Some rumor that was traveled by word of mouth grew to become a tradition to keep up for the franchise. The rumor on its own is a gaming legend and the ritual to the cow level happens in a very real place within the game.

 

Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji (망태할아버지)

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 53
Occupation: Doctor
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: March 27th, 2018
Primary Language: Korean
Language: Mandarin, English

Mang-tae-gi

Story

 

“Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji will come kidnap disobedient children!” (말 안 듣는 아이는 망태기 할아버지가 잡으러 온다!) is a phrase that makes all Korean children shiver in fear. Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji means grandpa (hal-a-buh-ji) of net bag (mang-tae-gi). The net bag was widely used during the pre-modern times and is made from weaving hay together like a net, making a tightly knit bag for carrying goods such as crops.

There are stories of the Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji kidnapping children either to scold them and return them back, never let them return or cannibalizing on them. It is commonly thought that the origin of the Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji is of old men that were leprous carrying the Mang-tae-gi bag. There was a belief of being able to be cured of leprosy through boiling and eating a child.

 

Context

 

I collected this from my mother, who has numerously used the name of Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji in the past in order to get me to become more obedient. This is significant to my mother has herself has also been subjected to this superstition by her own mother. My grandmother, despite being a devout catholic woman, made sure to track all superstitions to keep my then unborn twin cousins safe from harm. One of them involved giving the yet to be born child no pre-birth name (태명/ Tae-myeong) or intentionally giving them a very bad pre-birth name. This was because of the superstition of when one gives a good pre-birth names to children, evil spirits that are around, including Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji, will try to inflict harm on the good child. By downplaying the child through a bad pre-birth name, one is able to avoid the attention from these unwanted evil spirits. My twin cousins were given pre-birth names of Ddol-ddol-I (똘똘이) which means someone that is somewhat bright. Not the worst, but not good enough for evil spirits I guess.

 

 

Analysis

 

Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji can be compared to the Boogeyman, another mythical creature that is used to frighten children into good behavior. By instilling fear of disobeying, the parents can control the child much easier. However, despite using the name of Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji to scare children, the parents themselves also take caution against the evil spirit by taken on traditions such as giving no pre-birth names or bad pre-birth names.