In a variety of countries, many people may be acquainted with a story of an unfortunate pair, 'Romeo and Juliet 'which is written by William Shakespeare. Do you believe a similar story exists in Korea? yet the difference is that the story in Korea is a folktale of a celebration day in July 7 named ' Chil- Seok ' (Chil means 7 in Korean) although ChilSeok is not a very important day in Korea and does not have as many activities and food culture on the day as many others have, it exclusively has a riveting plot, some enjoyable food, amusing custom, furthermore it is recommendable to many people who want to know Korean celebrations.
To begin with the story, so long time ago, a boy named Kyeon U and a girl named Jik Nyeo lived. Mr K was a shepherd , Mrs J was a daughter of The king of The heaven . the king was reigning the heaven, the boy was over a galaxy beside the heaven . someday the king made his daughter marry Kyeon U after seeing He did a good job in a farm . yet , suddenly he got lazy because their love were too dynamic and robust . so people living in the heaven necessarily got hungry due to the lack of food , and the king having been seeing all the scene made a decision , he made the couple apart by putting a galaxy between them . Both were so sorrowful ,and crows and magpies beholding the state could bear it , and they put a bridge connecting both of them by stone on the Chil Seok day , and the name of the bridge is Ojak Kyo . What is funny here is , if you see crows and magpies' heads before the day , all are bold . the reason is said that they all put the stones on their heads in order that they could fly up and make the bridge on the sky .
Food is also not to be omitted. Like many other celebrations, on this day people customarily eat some special food. First, there is a kind of rice cake named JungPyeon. Ingredients are rough buck wheat, black sesame, sugar, rice wine, nut pine fruits and this is made by fermenting the rough buck wheat with sugar and warm rice wine, and then black sesame take a part of garnish. Second one is flour zucchini cake of a shape like a half moon. This is made with zucchini, of flour. And lastly, we eat flour noodle and a grilled wheat cake. Here, what is funny is that all things are related to flour. The very reason is that in Korea, long time ago before development of many technologies, after this day, flour wheat was impossible to grow; therefore many people usually ate flour wheat for last in the year. Nowadays, we have access to flour wheat irrespective of seasons through trade, vinyl house. So this custom is not categorically maintained among people but eating the foods mentioned above with thinking ages long time ago and being thankful can't help being a charming activity in this celebration.
There are also various activities in this day and interestingly, these follow some folktale of this celebration. You may be able to see it raining before and after the Chil Seok day. People usually call the rain one day before the day happy tears that Kyeon U and Jik Nyeo shed because they meet and call the rain one day after the day sad tears that they shed because they go apart. Surprisingly people living longtime ago believed that the rains are medicine water although they are not scientifically proven. So people, on the day, went to a river or waterfall and took an ablution by the water there. We also can do that for fun! And some people woke up in daybreak on that day, set a floor table with oriental melons and cucumbers. And then they prayed that they would be better in needle work. At night the day, if some spider webs were weaved over the table, the people became happy because they believed that Jik Nyeo helped they get better. Aside from these two, there are also many activities. Of course these things are not usual nowadays but it must be extraordinary to do these !
As enumerated and described above, there are many interesting things about a love celebration:the folktale, various wheat foods, and the practices. Though this is not a big celebration in a country, it is still great to enjoy the various foods and activities with feeling the emotion the pair is likely to have felt. Therefore, if some people ask me about some celebrations in Korea, I am willing to introduce this celebration to them. If you are sick and tired of trite celebrations or you have some plan to do something new, do not hesitate but feel free to enjoy this celebration!
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ReplyDeleteIrrespective of countries , many people may have in their mind a story of an unfortunate couple , 'Romeo and Juliet ' which written by William Shakespeare . do you believe a similar story exists in Korea ? yet , the difference is that the story in Korea is related to a celebration day in July 7 named ' Chil Seok ' (Chil means 7 in Korean) . Like Romeo and Juliet , there is a couple , they were not allowed to meet each other but unlike Shakespeare's , background, ending and detailed settings are not the same .
To begin with the story , so long time ago, a boy named Kyeon U and a girl named Jik Nyeo lived. Mr K was a shepherd , Mrs J was a daughter of The king of The heaven . the king was reigning the heaven, the boy was over a galaxy beside the heaven . someday the king made his daughter marry Kyeon U after seeing He did a good job in a farm . yet , suddenly he got lazy because their love were too dynamic and robust . so people living in the heaven necessarily got hungry due to the lack of food , and the king having been seeing all the scene made a decision , he made the couple apart by putting a galaxy between them . Both were so sorrowful ,and crows and magpies beholding the state could bear it , and they put a bridge connecting both of them by stone on the Chil Seok day , and the name of the bridge is Ojak Kyo . what is funny here is , if you see crows and magpies' heads before the day , all are bold . the reason is said that they all put the stones on their heads in order that they could fly up and make the bridge on the sky . the second one is that it usually rains on the Chil Seok day , people call the rain one day before the day happy tears that Kyeon U and Jik Nyeo shed because they meet and call the rain one day after the day sad tears that they shed because they go apart. The background of this tale is said to be from this fact that a star named 'Altair' from a constellation Aquila and Vega from Lyra are each placed on the east and west of the galaxy. On this celebration day , children make a poet regarding this couple, people eat fried pumpkins , wheat noodles and mediocre people believed that the God comes down and decide the amount of harvest , so they keep staying at home. And about this story .
Although this celebration day is not big one like Seol Nal or Chu Seok , this is evidently interesting to know . so this is even in a online game ' Baram ui Nara ' . I think this roman story deserves to be a representative love story of Korea and I will boastfully tell foreigners this when they ask me about such a story .