Tuesday, October 5, 2010

201001098 Jiwon No

Week 5 assignment: complete the essay about Korean tradition

 

Dongji

 

Do you have anything to do when the longest night comes? In Korean, we call the day 'Dongji'. Dongji is one of a Korean traditional day which has the longest night in each year. It might be on December, 15th on the lunar calendar. Though it is not considered as an important tradition nowadays, it is an interesting Korean traditional day.

 

Koreans did many things in Dongji. They ate two typical Dongji foods. One of them is Patjuk, which is a bowl of soup made by adzuki beans. Most Koreans ate it, because Koreans believed that adzuki beans have a special power to evade evil spirits. As people also believed that hundreds of evil spirits appear on Dongji due to its longest night, they ate a bowl of Patjuk. Burums which are sorts of nuts are another special food to bite and eat. People in Korea thought that if they break the Burums with their teeth and ate them, they can stay healthy without any diseases.

 

There are two activities to do at Dongji. Watching the moon on the bridge is one thing. People thought that if they prayed for their desire to the moon, it would become reality soon. Especially, couples who love each other pray for their forever love to the moon, it really works. The other thing is keeping oneself awake during all night. As there is a traditional customs that if a man fall asleep at Dongji night, rest of people staying awake make his eyebrows white to be seemed disappeared. Though I don't know the exact reason why these customs are passed down, some Koreans still do the customs.

 

Although nowadays Koreans have a tendency not to care so much about the events like Dongji, I think it is interesting traditional day and it is worthy to conserve. To protect this custom, I will do these activities and eat certain foods on Dongji. Why don't we carry out this customs together?

 

2 comments:

  1. Dongji is one of the special event in Korea. But most Korean young children are not knowing well about Dongji very well including me. But now I can know it quiet clearly because of your writting. And I was just thinking how about put your experience on Dongji more. But anyway I think it is really good writing.

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  2. 1. What I like about this piece of writing is your introduction and conclusion. (of course, I like your body paragraph as well!) You asked the questions. They made me think about my cases(I have lots of experiences about Dongji) and I think they can catch readers' attention.

    2. Your main point seems to be one of a Korean traditional day, Dongji, especially, you mentioned about foods and activities during Dongji day.

    3. 'Especially, couples who love each other pray for their forever love to the moon, it really works' line struck me as powerful, because I do not believe the love which can continue forever. However, you wrote 'it really works' Do you have any experience?


    4. Maybe people from other countries can read your essay . I hope you find the reasons(or assumptions many people have).

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