Traditional Korean Drum/Dance Ceremony

Bought a new pillow. I'm clearly a functional adult

So this weekend, I finally went out in Hongdae for the first time. It was fun, but not really anything different than American clubbing- crowded bars/clubs, no space, long lines for the bathroom, etc. Still a good time, though! I'm glad I live close to Hongdae so I can go out if I want to.

Anyway, on Sunday, I went to a ceremony/performance that my co teather, Young Ah, invited me to. She is part of a group that learns how to play traditional Korean drums, and they were having a performance/ceremony thing and I was really excited that she asked me to go.

The basic gist of the ceremony was a cleansing of bad energy and spirits and asking to be blessed with a brighter future.

intro giant drum

prepping and inviting the god to come

drum piece

welcoming and cleansing us

drum dance

Traditional Korean singing

the MC

 Then there was a giant drum dance with lots of different drums. They burned the wishes (the yellow papers that were on stage) and prayed that the wishes will come true. And there was a LOT of drumming and dancing.

Young Ah is in the center with
black shoes

twirly hats!

young ah being awesome

she's so cute but she has braces
so she hides them when she smiles haha

she really wanted me to try on the hats

So happy she invited me!!

and then someone handed me socks?

Don't worry, they fed me!

red bean rice cake and kimchi pancakes
despite my dislike of plain kimchi, the
pancakes were actually really good!

Here's a video with some clips from the ceremony and pics at the beginning and a couple at the end.








So, the ceremony took about 3 hours (dinner was included, see above) which made for a really long day, since it took almost an hour to get there and an hour to get home.
No korean meal or ceremony is complete without alcohol, so we also had Korean rice wine (makkoli) that some nice old men shared with me. People were really friendly even though I probably looked like I wandered in off the street and was just curious (which is mostly true, but my co teacher DID invite me!), and they even encouraged me to dance or tried to explain things to me when my co teacher was performing.


I'm just really touched that she asked me to come see it, because it means a lot that she would invite me to something cultural and personal. I'm glad I was able to go and support her and also to see some really amazing traditional Korean arts! I'm hoping it goes a long way in maintaining a good working relationship, because it was a blast to hang out with her and see the ceremony!

Back to the grind tomorrow, but it's going to be a fun and busy week! Halloween festivities start next weekend!!