Andong fires up International Mask Dance Festival

Posted Sep. 24, 2010 ShareThis

The 13th Andong International Mask Dance Festival will be held from September 24 to October 3, bringing together mask dancers and entertainers from all over Korea and around the world.  One of the largest and most popular festivals in Korea, this two-week event is the premier festival of the season.

Mask dance is an essential and ancient part of Korean culture, and each area in Korea developed its own particular theme, style, and costume.  Normally, seeing all these different dances would require traveling all around the country, but the festival is one of the few opportunities to a dozen different local dances in the same place.  From the Unyul Lion Dance to the Songpa Sangdae Mask Dance, these highly entertaining and colorful dances will all be performed during the festival at the main stage in Andong’s Hahoe Village.

Just recently designated a UNESCO World Heritage site along with Gyeongju’s Yangdong Village, Hahoe Village is a stunning collection of traditional houses in a scenic area that has been continuously inhabited for 600 years.  With examples of houses for both the elite Yangban class and commoners, the area is a uniquely important architectural and cultural site.

Hahoe Village is also home to one of the most unique and important mask dances, the Hahoe Byeolsingut Talnori.  This dance, dating back to the Goryo period, satirizes the lifestyles of the local elites and religious figures, and gives a humorous and vivid glimpse into rural lifestyles.  It is also the only indigenous Korean mask dance to be performed in articulated wooden masks.  Most mask dances use paper masks, which are burned after the performance, but in Hahoe the masks are used over and over again, and handed down through the generations.  The Hahoe Byeolsingut will be performed both on the village’s main stage.

The masks are also the subject of a curious legend.  According to tradition, a young man was told to carve the masks by a deity, who also commanded that he had to do so in complete solitude.  Accordingly the man sequestered himself far away from civilization, and had almost completed his task when a young maiden who loved him found his camp.  As soon as they laid eyes on each other, the young man died, leaving the last mask uncompleted.  To this day, the mask for the fool lacks a jaw.

International mask dance performance groups from China, Tibet, Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico, and Malaysia will also be at the festival, bringing a multinational flair to the events. The main festival ground in downtown Andong will play host to the dances from abroad, ensuring a chance for Koreans and visitors alike to enjoy the performances.

In addition to the mask dances, the festival also features some unique and stunning examples of traditional entertainment.  While Korean shaman ceremonies have mostly disappeared from daily life, there will be a major gut (shaman ceremony) held both at the main downtown venue and at a sacred tree in downtown, for a rare chance to witness this special ritual.  There will also be demonstrations of traditional chanting and singing, a funeral procession, and poetry composition contest.

The highlight of events downtown include the Notdaribapgi, a dance portraying a queen’s escape over the Nakdong River, and the Chajeonnori, where local men divide into teams that attack each other in an attempt to unseat the opposing captain, who rides an A-frame.

Weekends at Hahoe Village during the festival also include one of the most spectacular folk customs in Korea. Seonyujulbulnori is an absolutely unique event that involves floating lanterns, slow-burning flares strung across the Nakdong River, and bonfires being tossed over a cliff into the river as performers sing and recite classical poems. Performed on Saturday nights during the festival, this is one of the most mesmerizing and memorable events offered by any festival in Korea.

For more information on the Andong Mask Dance Festival, please visit their homepage: http://www.maskdance.com/english/main.asp

By Jennifer Flinn
Korea.net Staff Writer and Editor