Yeongsan Soemeori Daegi (Wooden Bull Fight of Yeongsan)

Yeongsan Soemeori Daegi is a communal village game handed down as part of the Daeboreum (first full moon) festival in Yeongsan-myeon, Changnyeong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do. It is a group contest in which teams shoulder a bull effigy woven from wood and charge at each other, the winner being decided when one side's wooden bull head knocks down the other's. No precise record of its origin survives, but it is said to have begun because the shapes of Yeongchuksan Mountain and Jakyaksan Mountain (also called Hambaksan) in Yeongsan looked as though two bulls were locked in contest, and the game was begun to release the mountains' ill energy and ward off misfortune. Yeongsan Soemeori Daegi is a kind of pyeonssaum (team contest game): the village is divided into east and west teams, and it has been handed down as an agricultural rite in the belief that the winning team's side of the village will enjoy a bountiful harvest, while the losing side will suffer a poor one. In the Yeongsan region it was a folk game performed at Jeongwol Daeboreum under the name Namusoe Ssaum ("wooden bull battle"), but today it is performed together with tug-of-war as part of the March First Culture Festival. As Daeboreum approaches, a rite is held for the mountain spirit, and logs about 10 m long are cut and brought down. Three logs are stood up and bound together at the top, with their feet spread wide at the bottom and fixed to a larger log so that the frame does not fall over. A crosspiece is fixed partway up the standing logs and bound firmly so that people can hold on and climb up and down. At the base of the wooden bull, five or six logs are laid crosswise and lengthwise and lashed together, so that it sits stably on the ground and is easy to shoulder during the contest. At the front of the standing frame, a carved model of a bull's head is fixed, or a mask is made and mounted there. Before shouldering the wooden bull and heading into the contest ground, the east and west teams play nongak (farmers'-band music) and wave flags to heighten the mood. Three commanders — the daejang, jungjang and sojang — ride on top of the bull's head and direct the team; the participants can win only if they act vigorously and nimbly under the daejang's direction. Victory is won by knocking down the opposing team's bull head, or by driving one's own bull head down over the opponent's until it touches the ground. Yeongsan Soemeori Daegi is a village-community folk game performed to pray for a bountiful harvest, a unique game that arose in the Yeongsan region and has been passed down only there.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Changnyeong, Gyeongnam

Designation

National Intangible Heritage · 국가무형유산