Korea Day 2017 in Budapest

By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Kim Garim

From April 7 to 9, Balna, a multi-cultural space in Budapest, hosted the 2017 Korean Culture Day event, part of the Budapest Spring Festival. This event was hosted by the Korea Cultural Center, the National Intangible Heritage Center and the Korea Cultural Property Foundation. It was also sponsored by many Korean organizations, such as the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Cultural Heritage Administration. 

The 2017 Korean Culture Festival had the theme of "Listening to the sounds of Korea." It consisted of Korean traditions, traditional Korean drinks, and some of Korea's intangible cultural properties, all part of the spring festival in Central Europe's heart of Budapest. It was highly acclaimed for its deep-rooted approach to Korea and to Korean taste, highlighting popular Korean movies and Korean pop songs in order to promote all things Korean, both traditional and beautiful.

People enjoy the chance to experience traditional Korea. (National Folk Museum)

Children try on some traditional Hanbok clothes. (National Folk Museum)

In the Balna Event Hall, singer-song writer Choi Goeun and the Korean band Whales were on stage. On April 8, when the main event was held, Gypsy violinist Kon, the Pocheon City Artistic Troupe, Mia Kim and Tommy Vig, Korean traditional dancers, K-pop songs, and gayageum performances all took place in real-time. Thousands of Buddhists, citizens and foreign tourists attended the event. The enthusiasm of the visitors for traditional Korea and for modern-day Korean pop culture could be felt.  

The experience of drinking traditional alcohol was exhibited under the theme of "Drink together: Drunk on the spring of Hungary." The Korean Cultural Center exhibited a traditional Korean instrument, the gayaguem, in a special exhibition of intangible cultural properties. Visitors were happy to directly experience Korean food and traditions. 

Hungarian chefs at Korean restaurants, such as Wok to Box, K Mart & Korean Foods, Jangguemi, K Point and WFCC cooked a wide variety of Korean food, including fish shaped buns, traditional rice and sugar drinks, tteokbokki rice cake in a spicy red sauce, bibimbap mixed rice with vegetables and beef, fish cake, spicy beef soup and even kimchi. Local Hungarian people who couldn't taste Korean food that easily had a good chance to do so at this event. 

Participants try their at making some sehwa prints. (National Folk Museum)

People sample some delicious Korean food at the event. (Kim Garim)

In particular, many Hungarian people participated in various events that were prepared by the Korea National Folk Museum. For example, they made a jegi, a jangmyeongnu bracelet, a sehwa print, and enjoyed chopsticks. Making the jangmyeongnu bracelet was the most popular among these. According to staff at the National Folk Museum, in addition to families with children, many Hungarian people showed great satisfaction with the traditional Hanbok attire "self experience event," where they had the chance to try on some beautiful Hanbok garments and take some photos. 

People make jangmyeongnu bracelets. (National Folk Museum)

In addition to this, in the indoor event hall all the visitors had many opportunities to experience and learn about various Korean things. For example, a child's car sponsored by the Hankook Tire corporation, traditional Korean dances, calligraphy, the gayaguem, traditional games, and even the game of go. There were drawing classes for a dancheong fan, patchwork classes, a pop star make up and hair class, and lessons in the Korean Hangeul alphabet. 

The best feature of the Korea Culture Day was the Korea simcheong, which is a Korean intangible cultural property. The simcheong is a special performance through which people from around the world can see the Korean people's intangible heritage and traditional arts. 

In Part 1 of the show, "Listening to the Sounds of Korea," the National Intangible Cultural Property No. 45, the Daegeum Sanjo, and National Intangible Cultural Property No. 82, the Byeolshin Gut of the Namhae Coast -- a dragon ship -- were performed with traditional rituals and instruments, resembling the sounds of the nature. In Part 2, a Korea simcheong was performed as a type of pansori and drama. This work of new content, composed based on the traditional Korean novel "Simcheong-jeon" and pansori, are Korea's intangible heritage items that belong to all of humanity. 

  

A special performance of the Korea simcheong takes place on stage. (Kim Garim)  

Actors and actresses pose for a photo after a performance of the Korea simcheong. (Kim Garim)

The Korean simcheong is a creative drama by the Korea Cultural Property Foundation for the Performing Arts and shows a variety of Korean traditions through music, dance and song. This performance was very popular with Hungarians who had already lots of experience of Korea and a consciousness of Hungarian native gypsy music. Thus, they broke into loud applause continually until the show was over. 

The great interest and sympathy of the Hungarian people is very significant because the promotion of Korean intangible cultural properties was successfully undertaken in Budapest, which is the center of Central and Eastern Europe. In addition, it was pointed out that the Korea simcheong showed a precedent for the future of globalization of intangible cultural heritage items in Korea.

wisdom117@korea.kr

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