Gyeongjublog.com

Back at the start of March I posted on this year’s Daeboreum (대보름), or Great Full Moon Bon Fire Festival, in Gyeongju.  As promised, I finally got around to editing the video and I’ve whittled it down to about 2 minutes.  Most of the video is of the Ganggang Sullae (강강술래) folk dancing around the bonfire, which was declared S. Korea’s Important Intangible Cultural Properties No. 8 back in 1965.

Ganggang-sullae from 조 선닷컴 - 뉴스플러스

Ganggang Sulae folk dancing dates back thousands of years in Korea and was traditionally done by the women of a village during an important full moon festival,  like Daeboreum or Seollal (설날). The women would hold hands and dance around in circle under the full moon while singing about their hardships and longings.  Every so often they’d stop and play various games like rock-paper-scissors, or kawi-bawi-bo (가 위 바위 보), as in the video.  If you’re interested in more info, I found a pretty cool article all about Ganggang Sulae on the blog: An Acorn In The Dog’s Food, along with some of the Ganggang Sulae song lyrics translated into English:

Many stars crowding in the sky,

Gang gang sullae

Friends are good and the ground is good.

Gang gang sullae

Pine leaves crowding in the pine woods.

Gang gang sullae

Bamboo leaves in the bamboo field.

Gang gang sullae