Leader Kim Jong Il said that an admirable national tradition of our people should be maintained, inherited and developed.
Resourceful and diligent Korean nation has been living harmoniously as the homogeneous nation for a long historic period since the first time of the birth of mankind and has created, inherited and developed its peculiar and admirable national tradition.
The Korean nation’s folk tradition that has been created and inherited along with the national history of thousands of years, has been formed through the protracted process of activity of the Korean people to create spiritual and material wealth by transforming nature and society and it covers such traditionalized manners created in different fields of national life as clothing, food and housing, family, labour, holiday, play, music, dance, oral literature and folk crafts.
Admirable folk tradition of the Korean people that has been handed down along with the long history is permeated with the wisdom and intelligence, feeling and emotion and hobby of the Korean people and reflects diligent, sincere, humble, fair, moral, harmonious, brave, enterprising and optimistic national characteristics.
We would like to describe about the food, clothing and housing that form the main contents in daily life of the Korean people and vividly tell national identity of Korea among admirable folk traditions of the Korean nation.
The Korean people have created their own peculiar and admirable folk traditions in the fields of clothing, food and housing.
The Korean people’s customs of clothing, food and housing have been developed and enriched continuously in keeping with the national feeling, emotion and natural and geographical conditions since their formation in the historic process of the Korean nation.
Dressing, diet and housing life basic and common to the Korean nation had been popularized already not only in the ancient times but in the period of the T
The Korean people’s national dress, the Korean costume, is created and inherited by the Korean people in conformity with the constitutional characteristics, the national emotion and taste of liking brightness, nattiness and elegance and the mild natural and geographical conditions and life conditions of Korea.
In the past, the Korean nation were fond of the color of clothes giving impression of bright and clear, suiting to the natural environments of the country with many beautiful mountains and rivers and to the national emotion of liking cleanliness, and it can be proved in the fact they revered and wore the white clothes in general. That is why the Korean nation is called “the white-clad folk”, “the white-clad race”.
The Korean nation has always dressed clean and neat.
They have regarded it as a lofty courtesy to wear clothes neatly, especially when receiving a visitor.
Noble and admirable dressing custom of the Korean people is inherited even today and especially, woman’s Chima (skirt) and Jogori (blouse) are the important sign symbolizing national identity of the Korean nation. Today, the Korean women wear such national costumes frequently as ggorichima (tail skirt), dotjogori (overwear), hoijangjogori (coat with colorful strips), tunggori (sleeveless jacket), turumagi (the Korean overcoat) etc. and these develop in keeping with the aesthetic sense of the times.
The Korean people created their own peculiar national identity in the field of dietary life, an important one in human life.
In the dietary life of the Korean people, boiled rice as the main staple food and various side dishes such as soup, jang (ragout), kimchi constitute the structure of dietary life. Such dietary custom is related with the life emotions and tastes of the Korean people who have widely cultivated main crops such as foxtail millet, kaoliang, bean, barley and rice, and vegetables including Korean cabbage and radish.
Characteristic in the Korean national foods is the developed stored dishes of different kinds, especially, such fermented stored dishes as, jang, kimchi and jotgal (pickled fish) etc.
Jang had been the major source of protein for the Korean people in the past and kimchi and jotgal had been the major source of vitamin and mineral matters. Therefore, Korean people regard the creation of jang, kimchi and jotgal as the significant turning point in the development of the Korean dishes and, even today, frequently eat them as the major subsidiary foods, thinking it as the national pride.
Specific feature in dietary life of the Korean people is that they regard the food in the same light with medicine.
“Regarding food in the same light with medicine” has been reported in Korea and it means regarding the medicine and food as one origin. Since early times, the Korean people have said that the good health comes from the bottom of rice bowl. This can be found in the fact that the foods made of bean, red bean, edible herbs and vegetables that are conducive to the health assume large proportion in the Korean national foods, and soup, thick broth, broth, fermented foods and mixed foods made of different kinds of side materials are much developed.
Table manners hold an important part in the traditional custom of dietary life of the Korean people.
From the old times, the courteous Korean nation has offered foods to the seniors first as token of respect for them and regarded it as courtesy to take cutleries after the seniors did. Especially, it is dietary table manners cemented through the historic period to treat the guests in all sincerity.
The Korean people created an admirable tradition in housing custom in keeping with the natural and geographical conditions and the national emotion of liking cleanness and neatness.
Since early times, the Korean people built houses facing south regarding that sunny dwelling can prevent the disease and made the windows of different types on southern side to ensure the brightness and temperature to the maximum. Building the houses in sunny places is the reflection of the national emotion and life feeling of the Korean people and this is an important standard in house construction, even now.
Providing with heating by installing the Korean heated-floor (hypocaust) holds an important part in housing custom.
The Korean hypocaust is a peculiar and characteristic one which is not available in other countries and it is very superior one.
The facility of the Korean hypocaust heats the whole area of the room floor, therefore, once it is heated, the warmth in the room lasts for a long time. Thus, the utility rate of the room is higher than the other countries heating facilities and it helps to keep the room clean, for it is heated from outside. As this heating system is useful, it is used not only in single-story houses but in high apartment buildings.
One of the admirable characteristics in the Korean nation’s dwelling is the types of the roof made in keeping with the natural environment of Korea and the life feeling of the Korean people.
The typical types of the roof of Korea are gabled roof, hipped roof and the hipped-saddled roof that combined the gabled roof with the hipped roof. Among them, the hipped-saddle roof is typical of the Korean tile-roof house for its nimble appearance, apparently flying, and beautiful and elegant appearance. Even today, it is used in modern Korean architectures as a symbol of the Korean house.
Under the meticulous guidance of leader Kim Jong Il, the excellent traditions created in the past in the fields of food, clothing and housing are inherited in Korea, now.
True to the lofty idea of President Kim Il Sung to inherit and develop excellent folklore of the Korean nation according to the requirement and taste of the times, leader Kim Jong Il has regarded this as important Party and state policy and wisely led this.
In Korea, therefore, these life modes are inherited and serve as valuable basis for creating new culture and custom.
