Otibyeolsin Rite, Jecheon

There are various forms of dongje, communal village rites held to pray for peace and prosperity, including sansinje (mountain-spirit rite), seonangje (village guardian-spirit rite), and dapsinje (stone-tower spirit rite). Sansinje is found nationwide, seonangje is mainly distributed north of the Hangang River, and dapsinje south of it. The Oti Byeolsinje is a seonangje of this northern type, and its ritual takes the form of a byeolsinje, a periodically held special guardian-spirit rite. The origin of the Oti Byeolsinje is not clearly known. However, since Oti village is said to have been formed about four hundred years ago, the rite's origin can likewise be presumed to date back about four hundred years. In particular, given the historical background that there was once a beacon-fire station on the hill behind Oti village, where beacon-fire watchmen were permanently stationed, it may be inferred that the Oti Byeolsinje is connected with that station. It is a folk custom handed down since ancient times as a shared communal faith of the village. The Oti Byeolsinje is held on the night of the fourteenth day of the first lunar month; from the morning of the fifteenth, the sansinje is performed, followed by the seonangje at the sangdang (upper shrine) and hadang (lower shrine) on Daseot-gogae hill, and the rite is concluded with a ceremony at the bondang (main shrine) in the village. In choosing the ritual host and carrying out the rite, a person whose yearly fortune is deemed auspicious represents the village, and the ceremony proceeds through the sequence of yeongsin (welcoming the deity), osin (entertaining the deity) and songsin (sending off the deity), followed in particular by an afterparty accompanied by nongak. The shrine consists of a shrine building and a sacred seonang tree; the ritual procedure and its taboos are observed solemnly, and the whole village takes an active part, so that the rite has been relatively well preserved in both form and content as a dongje. The Oti Byeolsinje is a type of dongje that functions as a communal folk belief and a symbolic act of social integration, and it is a seonangje of Korea's northern type. It is distinguished by the five shrines on the hills around the village and by the fact that the byeolsinje is held once every two years; it is also the only seonang byeolsinje still surviving in North Chungcheong Province. In Oti-ri, Susan-myeon, Jecheon, each of the five natural hamlets maintains its own seonang shrine. The village's main mountain enshrines the mountain spirit, the village's highest deity, while the seonang deity is enshrined at the village entrance and on five peaks, referred to as the upper and lower shrines. At the festive gathering that forms the afterparty of the rite, a ritual form of pungmulnori, a percussion-and-music performance accompanied by drinking and singing and traceable to the communal deity rites of ancient tribal states, is performed, including the full sequence typical of a byeolsin rite: welcoming, entertaining, and sending off the deity.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jecheon, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Intangible Heritage · 시도무형유산