Korean folklore
Stories and practices that are considered part of Korean folklore go back several thousand years. These tales derive from a variety of origins, including Korean Shamanism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and more recently Christianity.
Many folk traditions developed in rural areas such as villages. They often relate to households and farming, and reinforce family and communal bonds. The performance of folk tales reflects this, with performers often encouraging and eliciting audience involvement. Traditions and stories were passed down orally, although written examples appear beginning in the 5th century.
While many traditions have become less practiced or modernized, folklore remains deeply embedded in Korean society, continuing to influence fields such as religion, stories, art, and customs.
Types of folklore
There are many types of folklore in Korean culture, including Imuldam, focused on supernatural beings such as monsters, goblins and ghosts. The most common beings are the Gwisin, which are similar to deities, divinities, spirits or ghosts, and the Dokkaebi, which are legendary creatures sometimes considered "Korean goblins". However, this term differs from the European concept in that they do not possess an evil or demonic characteristic. Instead, they are creatures with powers that seek to bring people both delight and misery. These beings engage either in friendly or annoying behavior with humans. The presence of these beings is considered related to both difficulties and pleasures in life.Today stories are derived from a variety of origins, including Shamanism, Confucianism, Buddhism and more recently Christianity. Korean folklore began to be organized after folklore lectures were started by Cho Chi-hun.
Folk religion
Korean folk religion remains a part of the lives of modern Koreans. Korean folk religions are based on Korean shamanism and foreign religions such as Buddhism. Korean folk religions changed in nature and characteristics due to cultural infusion as foreign religions were introduced to Korea, and folk religions gradually developed as a mixture of foreign religions and indigenous beliefs. Korean folk religions are not individual beliefs, but are expressed through a community, having developed within local villages and homes. Korean shamans are involved in both the worship of household deities and rituals dedicated to village patron gods.In Korean folklore, houses are sacred places filled with the traditions of family members and ancestors. It is believed that there is a guardian deity in every place in the house, and that they bring good fortune to the family. For example, there is a god in charge of the house that helps bring in wealth, and a goddess in the master bedroom who helps give birth to babies and protects offspring. Evil spirits outside the house cause anxiety and fear, discouraging others from entering the house. There is thus a custom to restrict the entry of evil spirits by hanging thorn trees on the gate or by setting up ritual strings to prevent evil spirits from entering the house. The gods of the house confront these evil spirits and act as guardians of the house.
The village cult is an extension of the worship of household gods. The village is an extension of the family and a place where relatives live, although villages can also contain people who are not involved in the worship of the patron gods. The gods of the village cults differ depending on the characteristics of the village. Village cults are generally limited to one village, but sometimes they are extended out of the village to perform farming rituals or communal rites between multiple villages. Most villages serve one main god, who is accompanied by Jangseung or other small subordinate gods.
Korean shamanism has been looked down on by adherents of other religions, but has over time incorporated and imitated the form and organization of foreign religions such as Buddhism and Confucianism. Foreign religions in turn absorbed elements of shamanism. Shaminism also developed a complementary relationship with Confucianism. Shamanism dealt with abnormal and irregular problems, while Confucian beliefs dealt with regular and everyday problems. Korean shamanism includes rituals used to release rancor from bitter souls and expel bad luck from houses.
Folk literature
Folk literature is closely related to Korean culture. Most literature was passed down verbally, and revolves around the lives and customs of the Korean people. Such literature includes shamanic songs, myths, tales and folktales. There is variation in these stories, reflecting the periods of history in which they were formed. Many also have a community cultural character and are closely related to the production culture. Some literature is in metrical verse, while others are in prose form. Fragmentary written evidence of Korean folk literature can be found as far back as the 5th century, while complete stories preserved in writing exist from the 12th and 13th centuries in the Buddhist priest Iryeon's compendium Samguk yusa.Shamanic songs consist of both songs with narrative content about the gods, recited for ritual purposes, and non-narrative hymns addressed or dedicated to the gods. Both are traditionally passed down from shaman to shaman. One of the best-known examples of the former is the Princess Bari narrative. Most versions recount of a Korean princess abandoned by her parents for being the seventh daughter of a son-less king. Many years later, her parents fall ill, and the only cure is medicinal water from the Western Heaven. The abandoned princess is rediscovered and agrees to help her parents when the other daughters will not. She travels to the afterlife, where she marries the guardian of the medicinal water and bears him sons. She usually returns at her parents’ funeral, revives them with flowers of resurrection she has picked from the afterlife, and cures them with the water. The narrative commonly concludes with her becoming a deity connecting the living and the dead. The Princess Bari narrative is recited only in funeral ceremonies. The myth is generally understood as subverting the Confucian doctrines of patriarchy and age-ordered hierarchy through the Confucian value of filial piety; it is not the eldest son but the youngest daughter who manages to save her parents.
Social folk custom
Korean folk customs are a significant part of Korean culture. They include a strong belief in the importance of family, community and society. These beliefs are expressed during social practices such as family reunions and weddings. In some Western cultures, a person's lifelong rites are classified as birth, a coming-of-age ceremony, a wedding ceremony, and a funeral service. However, Korean customs emphasized the role of the family community and members of society, with birth being less important and filial piety after funerals being an important aspect of a person's life.The Four Ceremonial Occasions
In East Asian custom following the ancient Chinese Book of Rites, there are four rites of passage which occur throughout an individual's lifetime: the capping ceremony that marks the coming of age, the wedding, the funeral, and the ancestral rites. These events represent changes in an individual's social position throughout his or her life. After being born and supported by parents, they become adults, marry, and take care of family members. When they get old, they are supported as respected elders and die. In East Asia, these four rituals were grouped together as the Four Ceremonial Occasions, emphasizing the significance of changes in life and minimizing the confusion it brings.The capping ceremony was the coming-of-age ceremony, which marked the entry of adult from the world of childhood. People were recognized as full members of society after they went through this custom. It was traditional to wear a cap with a topknot on during this event. The second important occasion was the marriage. There were rituals for discussing marriage, exchanging gifts and exchanging letters. Marriages were arranged by families rather than made out of love. Funerals involved a strict system of mourning robes, and there was a system of wearing mourning robes and residing next to the parent's grave for three years, again based on Chinese precedent. Confucian-style burial and Buddhist-style cremation coexisted and continue to coexist. Following Confucian protocol, the ancestral rites—performed to commemorate the deceased on death anniversaries and on major holidays—were held for the great-great-grandparents, who were the oldest generation of ancestors that someone could plausibly have known personally. In East Asian custom, the definition of unmarrigeable kin extends to those who share the same great-great-grandparent.
During these four occasions, family members and village members actively cooperated, so they were able to foster community ties. However, the capping ceremony was gradually extinguished while Korea was under Japanese rule. Traditional family rituals were steadily restricted to rural areas, while in urban areas the events became simplified. After Korea's liberation from Japan's colonial rule, the traditional family system, which values ancestor worship, collapsed, placing more importance on weddings and sixtieth birthday celebrations for the living than on rituals for deceased ancestors. In the 1960s, as industrialization and urbanization were promoted, professional businesses such as wedding halls and funeral parlors were developed, and rituals were held outside the home. Along with the economic development, weddings, sixtieth birthdays, and funerals in particular became very luxurious and costly, which many Koreans consider a societal issue.
Social folk customs in daily life
A once dominant Confucian culture that emphasizes respect for ancestors, age and seniority has affected South Korea's home and workplace practices, and its social life. In addition to other factors such as economic status and status at the business level, age and marital status play a role in determining social status. These factors, especially age, affect relationships between social acquaintances. Folk customs related to family or farming have changed into other forms or disappeared little by little as industrialization proceeds.Jerye remains an important custom for Korean people. Koreans perform Jesa on the day of their ancestors' death, on Korean new year, and on Chuseok. The unity of the family community is strengthened because all families must gather together to prepare and hold events together during Jesa.
One food-related custom is gimjang. Many Koreans make a large amount of kimchi when the temperature drops in late fall. In spring, each household ferments seafood such as shrimp and anchovies with salt. In summer, they buy a thousand-day salt which is used to store the foodstuff for two to three years until its bitter taste is gone. In late summer, red peppers are dried and ground into powder. In late fall, housewives decide the right date for kimchi in part through consideration of the weather. Innovative techniques and creative ideas are shared and accumulated through the custom of sharing kimchi at home after making kimchi. This custom helped foster community ties, as family members and village members gathered together to make kimchi.