Kooksoondang 'Yedam' Used for Jongheon Ceremony at Jongmyo Daeje for 16 Years in Jeju

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] Kooksoondang announced that on the 2nd, at Jongmyo Shrine in Jongno-gu, Seoul, the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage and National Intangible Cultural Property No. 56, the ‘Jongmyo Daeje’ ceremony used the ancestral rite wine ‘Yedam’ as the official ritual wine for the Jongheon rite. The ancestral rite wine ‘Yedam’ has been used as the official ritual wine for the Jongmyo Daeje for 16 years since 2006.

The Jongmyo Daeje is held annually on the first Sunday of May. It is a ritual held at Jongmyo, the royal shrine of the Joseon Dynasty and a World Heritage site, to enshrine and perform rites for the spirit tablets of the kings and queens of the Joseon Dynasty. The Jongmyo Daeje is a comprehensive ceremony that harmonizes ritual music and Ilmu (a traditional dance), making it a rare and unique ritual worldwide.

This year, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infections, the ceremony was held privately without an audience.

According to Kooksoondang, in Korea, there has been a tradition of each household brewing ritual wine (Jeju) for ancestral rites and memorial services according to proper etiquette and offering it to ancestors. However, during the Japanese colonial period, the liquor tax policy prohibited home-brewed alcohol (Gayangju), and in the 1960s, the rice protection policy prevented the use of rice in Korean alcohol production, leading to Japanese-style sake replacing traditional ritual wine. Even today, many mistakenly believe the Japanese sake brand ‘Masamune (正宗)’ to be traditional Korean ancestral rite wine.

‘Yedam’ ancestral rite wine is Korea’s first exclusive wine for ancestral rites and memorial services. Unlike Japanese-style sake brewed with added distilled spirits, it is a pure fermented yakju made with 100% domestically grown rice according to traditional etiquette. Under the liquor tax law, ‘yakju’ refers to clear traditional Korean alcohol. During the Japanese colonial period, Japanese-style sake was classified as ‘cheongju’ (clear sake), and Korean traditional clear alcohol lost its original name ‘cheongju’ and was reclassified as ‘yakju.’

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.