Hello dear readers.
In today’s post I will tell you about a festival you shouldn’t miss during your stay in Korea!
I got the chance to go to Icheon Rice Culture Festival (이천 쌀문화축제), which took place at Seolbong Park(설봉공원) in Icheon. This is a city in Gyeonggi Province (경기도) and be careful because it shouldn’t be confused with Incheon Metropolitan city (인천광역시).
The trip itself was organized by the OIC (Office of International Cooperation) at Hanyang University. Basically all international students got an e-mail about the event. So next year if you happen to be here and the international office is still arranging the visit, do not miss it!
The Rice festival took place the whole week of 22nd until 26th of October. We happened to go the last day. Three busses departed from the Olympic gymnasium 9 o’clock in the morning. For a small fee of 5.000W we got the transport covered, small breakfast on the bus, lunch coupon ticket and a Hanyang University hoodie.
Entrance to the Festival
The journey to Icheon didn’t take more than one hour and a few minutes. Once we got there we were given raffle tickets for collecting stamps from each ground we visited while experiencing traditional Korean culture. In the end, a ticket with all stamps collected allowed us to participate in a lottery with giveaways provided.
All stamps collected. Mission accomplished!
Happy selfie after a great hunting
It was great fun because with all the stamps hunting we were dipped into Korean traditional games, rice cake making, makkolli tasting, traditional Korean wedding ceremony and many more amusing activities.
Here we were taking part in the so famous “Dragon Tug of War”, where some great effort was required
Traditional Wedding
Samulnori
Making Rice Cakes
Along with the physical activities there were way more pleasant and delicious things we got to make. Stopping at the Songpyeon workshop was a good idea. We learned how to make it, then our “production” was steamed and finally we got the chance to eat all of what we have prepared ourselves.
After the hard work we couldn’t have missed trying out some nice little treats!
Songpyeon has become a popular symbol of traditional Korean culture. It is usually eaten during the Korean autumn harvest festival, called Chuseok (추석)
Our beautiful half-moon-shaped rice cakes
The festival was all about rice and things you can make with it. Starting from food and going all the way to making traditional Korean masks with rice. All of this was great experience and gave me and everybody else, I believe, a better understanding of Korean culture through much entertainment.
Final verdict: strongly recommended!
You will for sure get to know new people, make friends and all of this while having fun and of course getting to know more about Korea.
Article by Jani from Bulgaria
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