Mulpeginongyo, Geumsan

Mulpeogi village in Pyeongchon-ri, upstream on the Geumgang River, is said to have been named 'Mulpeogi' because it would flood even after a little rain. Mulpeginongyo is a farming song of this village that expresses, through song and movement, the whole process of farming from beginning to end, and it is made up of the sections tosin-gosa (a rite to the earth god), a rice-transplanting song, dureong-balgi (treading the paddy banks), the first weeding, mending the paddy banks, the second weeding, a song for pounding grain, a song for wrapping rice to eat, and jangwon-nori (a game honouring the best farmer). It begins when a trumpet call announces that a durae (communal farming team) has been formed; the villagers gather at the entrance to the village to hold a rite to the earth god, followed by the song sung while transplanting the rice. Next comes dureong-balgi, treading down the paddy banks so that rats, moles and the like cannot burrow through them, and after fifteen to twenty days the first weeding is done to the accompaniment of a song, also known as 'Eolka-saniya'. Ten days after that, the second weeding takes place, and at the end, after the harvest, a lively song is sung while pounding the grain; once the pounding song ends, the villagers sit in a circle, cook rice and wrap it to eat, singing all the while. Finally, in jangwon-nori, held around Baekjung (the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month), the villager judged to have farmed best that year is chosen, crowned with a wreath of vine, given a bamboo hat as a parasol, and paraded around on the back of an ox. Geumsan Mulpeginongyo has a distinctive structure combining songs of the plains and songs of the mountains. It won the Prime Minister's Award at the 1991 National Folk Arts Contest, and its tradition is carried on today by Yang Seung-hwan, the holder of the skill, who lives in Buri-myeon, Geumsan County.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Geumsan, Chungnam

Designation

Provincial Intangible Heritage · 시도무형유산