By the way, I’m sure that you will have noticed exactly two weeks ago (Thursday April 19th) that it was a rare conjunction of three ‘holidays’ in one: it was “4.19″ the anniversary of the fatal demonstrations that overthrew President Rhee in 1960 (there was a classical music performance at the Memorial Cemetery for that; by the traditional solar calendar it was also “goku” (one of the 24 seasonal subdivisions), the crucial day for picking green tea down at Jiri-san, Dosol-sa, Boseong, etc (there were ceremonies for the Tea-spirit at some or all of those locations); AND by the traditional Lunar Calendar it was 3.3 (the Third Day of the Third Moon) which is highly sacred and auspicious (three being that kind of number in all Korean religious heritages), especially for holding rituals to honor the local Mountain-spirits. Pretty rare that they all three line-up on the same day like that, I think.
Anyway, if interested you can check out my two pages of photos from the Samgak-san “Dodang-je” Shamanic Mountain-spirit ceremonies that were held on that day in NE Seoul, with the support of a few prominent politicians, on this page.
And just yesterday was 3.16, the day after the Third Full Moon, when most Buddhist temples here perform their largest annual Buddhist-style San-shin ceremony; in the morning I ran a tour for the Seoul International Women’s Association to one of those in the National Park area right above downtown Seoul, similar to the tours I did in 2005 & 6. Sorry that I didn’t offer the chance to go on this gig on this blog, but we were already totally full with a waiting list — 33 people showed up! We almost outnumbered the temple-member adjumas who were there… Four hours of hiking and explaining under the beautiful blue sky, man I was tired! But May is always like that…
Also yesterday the Gyeryong-san Sanshin-je Festival, Korea’s largest public Mountain-spirit ceremonies, started at Shinwon-sa Temple (on Mt. Gyeryong’s SW side, in Gongju City). The Buddhist rituals were held Wednesday; the Neo-Confucian ones were held today, and there will be Shamanic ritual performances there all weekend. I’m sorry that I didn’t post about this in advance, but information on it is hard to come by, they don’t seem to care about attracting foreign visitors even though it’s quite a spectacularly colorful and interesting series of events. I won’t be able to make it down there myself this year, just too busy — if any of you go there and see any parts of it, I’d appreciate hearing from you about it! Send e-mail…
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6 Comments
It seems appropriate (or even auspicious, if one goes in for that kind of thing) that you should have attended 3.3 ceremonies on a mountain called”Samgak-san”! Was that just a coincidence, or is the significance of the mountain’s name intentional?
That’s a fine-looking page you’ve put together. Thanks.
I’ve been to Sinwon-sa as I used to live in Gongju. Quite a place. I know the temple you mean, as well. It was almost deserted when I was there in 2003. Interesting to see it full of people. Thanks. Would love to go again but I’m just gonna go hit the beach on Deokjeokdo. Thanks.
> is the significance of the mountain’s name intentional?
Sure, “Three Horns” — protective guardian, and 3 is always sacred number in Korea… See my Bukhan-san and Samgak-san pages for more about the name.
I mean, as opposed to attending the ceremony on some mountain called Chilseongsan or Palgongsan….
But I know you know that’s what I mean.
Right you are