[News Terms] Lunar New Year and Chuseok Holidays Also Recognized as 'National Intangible Cultural Heritage'

First Designation of a Holiday Not Based on Traditional Performing Arts or Knowledge
"High Historical, Academic, Representative, and Socio-Cultural Value"

Five representative holidays?Seol, Daeboreum, Hansik, Dano, Chuseok, and Dongji?will be designated as National Intangible Cultural Heritage. This is the first time that holidays, rather than traditional performing arts or knowledge, have been designated as National Intangible Cultural Heritage. On the 18th, the Cultural Heritage Administration announced that starting from May next year, these five representative holidays will be designated as National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

'National Intangible Cultural Heritage' refers to intangible cultural assets that have been passed down through multiple generations and are deemed necessary to preserve and transmit as national heritage.

A family bowing during the Lunar New Year ancestral rites.
[Photo by Asia Economy DB]

National Intangible Cultural Heritage is divided into seven categories: traditional performances and arts, traditional techniques, traditional knowledge, oral traditions and expressions, traditional customs, traditional games and martial arts. The intangible heritage policy has expanded from focusing on transmitters with specialized skills and arts to encompassing community customs that the entire nation has collectively preserved and passed down.

Accordingly, following the designation of Hanbok lifestyle and Yutnori as National Intangible Cultural Heritage last year, this time, holidays that have been enjoyed and transmitted as family and local community customs have also been designated as National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The holidays Seol, Daeboreum, Hansik, Dano, Chuseok, and Dongji were already established as a national culture during the Three Kingdoms period and institutionalized during the Goryeo Dynasty. Their uniqueness and diversity have been preserved and maintained across all generations and social classes up to the present, representing Korea’s traditional culture.

Seol and Daeboreum span from the first day to the fifteenth day of the lunar new year, marking the beginning of the year. Records in the Samguk Sagi and Samguk Yusa indicate that these were observed as national seasonal rites since the Three Kingdoms period. During the Goryeo Dynasty, customs such as Seol ancestral rites, Sebae (New Year’s bow), and eating rice cake soup were practiced.

Dongji is the day to cook and eat red bean porridge.
[Photo by Getty Images]

Hansik, a spring holiday, falls on the 105th day after Dongji. It has a strong ritualistic character of honoring ancestors by visiting ancestral graves, performing memorial rites, and clearing weeds. Dano, which corresponds to the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, is a representative summer holiday featuring various customs such as washing hair in iris water, gathering mugwort and motherwort, and making and attaching talismans. The Gangneung Danoje, Gyeongsan Jajin Danoje, and Beopseongpo Danoje festivals are designated as National Intangible Cultural Heritage, with Gangneung Danoje also inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Chuseok, along with Seol, is considered one of Korea’s representative holidays. On Chuseok, which falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, families gather to make songpyeon (rice cakes), perform ancestral rites, and visit graves. Unlike China and Japan, where rituals are held to worship the moon, Chuseok emphasizes ceremonies honoring ancestors. Dongji, the winter solstice, is also called the ‘small Seol.’ It is a time to wrap up the old year and prepare for the new one, marked by making red bean porridge for ancestral rites and promoting community harmony. There was also a custom of sewing traditional Korean socks (beoseon) to wish for the longevity of elders.

These holidays encompass diverse and complex cultural phenomena, including food, clothing, housing, seasonal customs, rituals, and games, making them subjects with limitless potential for research across various fields, according to the Cultural Heritage Administration. The Administration added, “We have designated these as National Intangible Cultural Heritage because they are highly valuable in terms of historicity, academic significance, representativeness, socio-cultural value, and sustainability, and we aim to preserve and transmit them.”

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