There is an old Korean saying that goes, “Whether you die on Cheongmyeong청명 or Hansik한식, it doesn’t make any difference.” Cheongmyeong, one of 24 seasonal divisions, means a clear sky or a bright spring day. It usually falls around April 5th, around Arbor Day. Meanwhile, Hansik, meaning cold food, is the day when people eat cold food. In ancient China, lighting a fire was forbidden on this day in order to remember a loyal official who died in a fire. In the old days, it was very important to keep the fire going, so one of housewives’ key duties was to keep the embers alive. When Hansik approached, people would put out the old fire and light a new one, and eat cold food while the fire was out. Hansik falls on the 105th day since Dongji동지, the winter solstice, which happens to be around April 5th or 6th on the solar calendar. Cheongmyeong or Hansik usually falls on the same day or one day apart, thus the old saying about the two seasonal divisions. On Hansik, Koreans visit their ancestors’ graves to pay respect to them. “Jejeon제전,” a song from the western region, is about a woman visiting her husband’s grave on Hansik. Here’s Korean traditional ensemble Jihwaja singing “Jejeon.”

Jejeon/ Sung by Jihwaja

In this song, the woman spreads a clean paper on which she places lovingly prepared food for her dead husband. She offers rice cake, meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, everything her husband had loved, and of course, wine is a must in this memorial feast. Today we heard the song up to the part where only a couple of different wines were mentioned - famous ancient Chinese poet Li Taibai’s favorite wine and the pine needle wine favored by a nameless hermit. The entire song mentions a lot more varieties of wine, ending with the woman resenting her husband for dying so young and asking him to take her too. Life has always been difficult for widows. The woman in the song must have felt very lonely and bitter as she drank wine on a warm spring day and thought about her tragic lot in life. Back in the old days, people had a lot of fun making pancakes with flowers and singing and dancing outdoors on Hansik. Even women were allowed to drink and make merry on this day. Now we have another song about drinking. This is titled “Gwonjuga권주가,” a wine offering song, one of the twelve traditional gasa가사 songs. Here is traditional music ensemble Modern Gagok singing the modernized version of “Gwonjuga.” 

Gwonjuga/ Sung by Modern Gagok

Another song about wine is “Chunmyeongok,” meaning “Spring Nap Song.” In this song, a man wakes up from a long nap and opens the window to see the garden filled with spring flowers and butterflies flying among the blossoms. He drinks wine while enjoying the spring scenery but feels lonely before long, which prompts him to go out looking for a woman to share his wine. The song that adapted this song into a love song is the last one we’re going to hear today. It’s titled “Yeonbun,” meaning a romantic relationship. A male singer takes turns with a female counterpart singing the verses, as if secretly exchanging words of affection. If you have a loved one, try singing it together with him or her. Today’s Sounds of Korea episode will conclude with gagok artist group L’Art Pour L’Art performing “Yeonbun.”

Yeonbun/ Performed by L’Art pour L’Art