🎧 Yul's Korea Audio Guide
Andong Hahoe Folk Village
Narrated in English with Korean phrases by YUL of KVIBE IDOLS.
🎵 Background music: Still in That Spring (그 봄에 머물러) — KVIBE IDOLS · Listen to the full song →
Full transcript
Annyeong, yeoreobun! Yul here, in Andong. Look at the river. It curves around this village like a giant S. That's the name: Ha means river, and hoe means to turn around. Welcome to Hahoe Folk Village!
For centuries, since the early Joseon era, this has been the home of one family clan, the Ryu clan of Pungsan. And people still live here today, in thatched-roof and tile-roof houses. One famous son of the clan was Ryu Seong-ryong, the prime minister who helped guide Korea through the Japanese invasions of the 1590s.
But Hahoe is also famous for masks. The village keeps a mask dance called Hahoe Byeolsingut Talnori, where masked characters like a foolish nobleman, a scholar and a butcher poke fun at the upper class. Legend says a young man named Heo carved the masks alone, and no one was allowed to watch. But a girl who loved him peeked, and he died before finishing the last mask. That's why one mask has no chin!
And here's the twist. On April 21, 1999, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain visited Hahoe, on her 73rd birthday! Villagers prepared a birthday feast, she took off her shoes to enter a traditional house, watched the mask dance, and planted a tree that still stands today.
Yul's tip! In 2010, Hahoe became a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with Yangdong Village. Check the mask dance schedule before you go, and remember, people live here, so be quiet and polite.
Next, we head to Busan, to a rainbow village on a hillside. Kaja!
