Thursday, June 04, 2009

Hyunsan festival

I don't know what the point of Hyunsan festival is.  It could be a local analog of Dano, or something completely different.

Once again, the photos are jumbled.

This morning I took KwandongAlex to Yangyang to meet a coworker and tour the festival.  One of the last things we saw was a Shaman ritual.
In addition to the festival, today is market day at the "Oh-il Jang" (Five day market - held once every five days - on days ending in 4 or 9), so there was much to see.
The product seemed to be a metal cleaner.  Whatever it did, it's ingredients were interesting as all heck.  Ants, sea horses, centipedes, and a white snake pickled with ginseng were on display.

To reinforce a point Marmot's Hole blogger Elgin (most recently here) consistently makes, Koreans don't seem to really understand how pesticides work.  This gentleman probably thinks he is helping people as he sprays his poison.  Before I shot him here, he had just sprayed a donut maker's wares - mmm, pesticide donut.

At the Naksan Temple booth, I let the staff stick burning stuff on my hand in an effort to relieve pain in my elbow.  This process, which I thought was a kind of hand-acupuncture (Son Ji-chim), was named by the staff as sook-ddeum.  Sook is the Korean version of wormwood or absinthe and I have fallen under it's evil influence in the past.

I notice no difference in my elbow, by the way.
Returning to a market photo, these were on display at the antique dealer's tent.  Sex and violence are close together even at the market.

No comments: