"Where in the World"

The first Sunday in May

At the UNESCO designated site of Jongmyo (Changdeokgung Palace), Jongmyo Daeje is celebrated on the first Sunday of May every year. It is a solemn national ritual that represents the 500 year history and spirit of the Joseon Dynasty. This only happens once a year so we thought we would take advantage of that and drop in to see what was going on.

When we first arrived at the main coutyard where the peformances were taking place there were so many people that you couldn't find a seat. They began to push the people down in front so the ones at the back could see. After some pushing and shoving we managed to find a space enough to see what was happening.

After about five minutes we had ajimas (old women) poking us and prodding us, so we would move out of the way. It got extremly frustrating as we couldn't move forward, or backwards or even have enough room to sit on the floor. At one point Emily turned round to me and said "if they push one more time I'm going to hit them," go Emily! 

 
Palilmu Dancers

The dancers peformed in Jongmyo  Daeje are called Ilmu or Palilmu. Pal means eight and they therfore stand in rows of eight, totalling a number of 84 dancers. Ilmu consists of two types of dance, Munmu and Mumu. Munmu is danced to the music of Botaepyeong, with Yak (a three-holed bamboo flute) in the left hand and Jeok (a pheasnat-feather tasseled wooden bar) in the right hand. It is a dance of civilian tates. Mumu is a military dance, with those in the front four rows holding wooden swords and the rear four rows wooden spears. It involves fast forcible moves.

Video (Palilmu Dancers) - http://s154.photobucket.com/albums/s254/katrinaleanne159/?action=view&current=MOV03271.flv

The peformance was good and plenty of information was provided in English so that we could understand the ceromony. But after a while it got to hot sitting in the sun so we moved away from the main courtyard back to the entrance where we found staff handing out plastic vissas. We couldn't resist and so below is a picture of us doing our 'ajima' impressions.

• Posted by k_millington on 08/05/2007.
• k_millington's site