Hwaeomsa on Jirisan, ‘22nd Hwaeom Cultural Festival’ continues October 9~11 ··· Performances at the temple by Choi Baek-ho·Guckkasten·Ha Yoon-ju - 스포츠경향
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A cultural festival unfolds at an ancient temple in Korea’s southern region, with a diverse lineup of artists taking the stage, including Choi Baek-ho·Guckkasten·Ha Yoon-ju·saenghwang·contemporary dance (Project M).
Grounded in the memorial rite for the late Superintendent Cha Il-hyeok, the 22nd Hwaeom Cultural Festival will feature, in succession, the Gwaebuljae·Gurye Hyangje Julpungnyu performance·yoga competition·Hwaeom Music Festival.
Hwaeomsa, the head temple of District 19 of the Jogye Order on Jiri Mountain (Abbot Venerable Useok), will host the ‘2026 22nd Hwaeom Cultural Festival’ over three days from October 9 to 11 across the temple grounds and at the special stage by Bojeru. This year’s festival theme is “Light the lamp in the wind”.
While the winds of the world cannot be stilled, the festival embraces the idea that one can still light one’s own lamp within them, connecting the millennia-old Hwaeomsa’s history, Buddhist culture, and spirit of practice with traditional arts·yoga·meditation·music·line dance·walking.
This year, rather than simply listing programs, the three-day journey is woven into a single narrative that progresses through ‘the lantern of memory→the lantern of tradition and faith→the inner lantern→the lantern of art→the lantern of community→the lantern of gratitude and dedication’.
At 10:00 a.m. on the festival’s opening day, October 9, the 68th-anniversary memorial rite for the late Superintendent Cha Il-hyeok will be conducted at Gakhwangjeon and the memorial stele. Honoring the spirit of the late Superintendent Cha, who protected Hwaeomsa and other precious cultural heritage during the Korean War, this year’s ceremony is held under the theme “A millennium one person protected, a millennium we will carry on”.
Hwaeomsa will spotlight the late Superintendent Cha Il-hyeok not as a mere figure from history but as ‘the person who protected Hwaeomsa’, ‘the person who protected cultural heritage’, ‘the person who made the right choice at a moment in history’, reflecting on how one person’s decision could pass millennia-old cultural heritage on to the next generation.
Then, from 1:30 p.m., the ceremonial moving and rite of the Gwaebul, which symbolize the Buddhist identity of the Hwaeom Cultural Festival, will unfold. The National Treasure, the Hwaeomsa Yeongsanhoe Gwaebul painting (original), will be ceremonially moved from the museum, enshrined on the Gwaebul stand, and the traditional Buddhist rite will be officiated by Venerable Donghwan, the Jogye Order’s Eosan jongjang.
Hwaeomsa will present the Gwaebul to the public as a ‘living Buddhist cultural heritage’ that has carried the vows and aspirations of faith, practice, and community for centuries, rather than as an artifact confined to a museum.
The moment the massive Gwaebul (12.08×769.4cm) is slowly revealed will symbolically embody this year’s festival message: “Today we unfurl before the world the lantern of wisdom first lit a thousand years ago”.
The first night will be graced by the Gurye Hyangje Julpungnyu, designated in 1985 as National Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 83-a. At 7:30 p.m. in Bojeru, under the theme “Millennial elegance flowing beneath the moonlight”, the traditional harmonies of geomungo·gayageum·daegeum·haegeum·yanggeum·danso·piri·janggu will be performed together.
Rather than elaborate stage sets, the venerable Bojeru, the autumn night of Jirisan, moonlight, and wind become the stage, completing the ‘lantern of tradition’ where the night of the millennia-old temple meets Gurye’s traditional music.
October 10 is the day at the heart of this year’s Hwaeom Cultural Festival. In the morning, participants look within through yoga and meditation, and in the evening, they expand that light to the world through music and art. The flow of the entire day is arranged as ‘from practice to art, from stillness to resonance, from the lantern within me to a lantern for the world’.
From 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., the special stage in front of Bojeru will host the 6th Jirisan Hwaeomsa Yoga Competition, commemorating the 12th International Day of Yoga (June 21).
This year’s theme is “From the lantern within me to a lantern for the world”, and about 400 people will take part. Against the backdrop of the temple pavilions of a millennia-old monastery and Jirisan, participants find balance of body and mind through breathwork and meditation, Yeo Nam-jun’s (meditation singing bowl), and yoga performances (Jeonnam Yoga Association Jibenjeoseu).
In addition to yoga practitioners in Gwangju and South Jeolla and general participants, programs linking Indian culture and yoga are prepared, making this a symbolic moment where Hwaeomsa’s Seon practice meets the spirit of Indian yoga.
Hwaeomsa plans to develop the yoga competition not as a simple recreational sports event but as a ‘practice-based wellness program to discover the lantern within’, and to expand Hwaeomsa in the long term into a meditation·yoga·wellness cultural space visited by people from around the world.
The 22nd Hwaeom Music Festival, held on the second night, will begin not with dazzling lights or a host’s opening declaration, but with three strikes of the jukbi by Venerable Beomjeong (Hwaeomsa’s director of public relations) at center stage.
The first strike of the jukbi signifies ‘pause’, the second ‘awakening’, and the third a ‘new beginning’ for Hwaeomsa. Then the beopgo and samul, and five strikes of the temple bell, awaken the night of the millennial sanctuary, and through the Six Offerings of incense·flowers·tea, the festival’s meaning as ‘an offering that places today’s art upon a thousand-year-old sanctuary’ is revealed.
When the Six Offerings conclude, the first note of the saenghwang flows out, and at the same moment, after completing the gobul rite at Gakhwangjeon, Hwaeomsa’s abbot and the assembly of monks proceed to the performance venue. This scene will be broadcast in real time on large screens via drone, with the resonance of the saenghwang interweaving to create a moment where a thousand years of practice and today’s art become one.
The main performance unfolds around the festival’s overarching theme, “Light the lamp in the wind”, across five scenes of ‘wind→sound→life→body→light’.
The saenghwang embodies ‘wind’, Ha Yoon-ju ‘sound’, Choi Baek-ho ‘life’, Project M’s contemporary dance ‘body’, and finally Guckkasten’s intense music completes ‘light’.
Different arts meet in a single flow to depict how a small lantern that begins within one person expands, through person to person, into a light that faces the world.
When the performance ends, a single strike of the jukbi resounds again at center stage. If the opening strikes announced awakening and departure, the final strike is the sound of ‘dedication’, carrying the resonance gained from the performance back into each person’s life.
Beginning with three strikes of the jukbi, the music festival passes through the beopgo·temple bell·offerings·saenghwang and five scenes, and with a final single strike of the jukbi returns to the mountain temple’s quiet.
A night when a thousand years of practice meet today’s art, and a lantern lit in one person’s heart becomes a light for the worldthat is the meaning of “Light the lamp in the wind” that the 22nd Hwaeom Music Festival seeks to portray.
On the final day of the festival, October 11, from 8:30 a.m., the 3rd Jirisan Hwaeomsa Gurye County Line Dance Club Contest and the 6th Mother’s Path Walk will take place in succession.
The line dance club contest, under the theme “Following the rhythm, linking health and hearts”, will see the participation of nine teams representing line dance clubs from towns and townships in the Gurye area.
Focusing on the meaning of line dance‘stepping in unison while looking in the same direction’ to musicHwaeomsa will run the event as a lifestyle wellness program that goes beyond winning and competition to safeguard health and connect people with one another.
It is especially meaningful in that local residents will not remain mere spectators at the Hwaeom Cultural Festival, but become protagonists who directly step onto the stage and co-create the festival.
Before the main event, Gurye’s specialty ‘Arang Gogo Janggu’ will open the festival with a demonstration performance full of vigorous rhythms and lively melodies.
After the line dance clubs present the skills they have honed, a ‘Trot Stage for All’ will follow, where both participants and spectators come together as one.
After the contest, on the Trot Stage for All, the duo One Plus One (Kim Min-gyo, Lee Byung-cheol) will perform familiar, upbeat songs, creating an exhilarating time of harmony as participants, local residents, and tourists sing and dance together.
Through this, Hwaeomsa plans to make the line dance contest not just a competition, but a community festival where the excitement of the janggu, the healthy movement of line dance, and the joy of trot all come together.
Transcending generations and regions, a time when everyone smiles in one place, moves their bodies, and connects heartsthat is the ‘lantern of community’ that the Hwaeom Cultural Festival seeks.
The lantern of community lit by laughing and rejoicing together then continues into th festival’s final program, ‘Mother’s Path’, deepening from joy to gratitude, from encounter to reflection, and again to dedication, completing the three-day Hwaeom Cultural Festival.
If the final sentence is linked as “from joy to gratitude, from encounter to reflection, and again to dedication”, then line dance and ‘Mother’s Path’ flow naturally as the closing scene of the Hwaeom Cultural Festival’s overall narrative, rather than as separate events.
The symbol running through the 22nd Hwaeom Cultural Festival is, ultimately, the ‘lantern’. What Superintendent Cha Il-hyeok protected is the lantern of memory and cultural heritage, and what the Gwaebuljae and Hyangje Julpungnyu carry forward is the lantern of a thousand-year tradition.
Yoga and meditation are times to light a lantern within oneself, and the Hwaeom Music Festival is a stage that expands that small light into a lantern for the world through music and art.
On the final day, as local residents step in unison and walk Mother’s Path, they complete the three-day journey with the lantern of community and dedication, returning the love and gratitude they have received back to family, neighbors, and the world.
Abbot Venerable Useok of Hwaeomsa said, “There is no life without wind. What matters is not avoiding the wind, but not letting one’s own lantern go out within it. We have put into this Hwaeom Cultural Festival our wish that the lantern of wisdom that illuminated Hwaeom a thousand years ago will be lit again in the hearts of people living today”.
He added, “From the noble choice of one person who protected cultural heritage to the Gwaebul and traditional music, yoga and meditation, contemporary music and dance, the everyday culture of local residents, and the path walked in remembrance of mothersthough these may outwardly seem different, in the end they are all connected as one. That is precisely the spirit of Hwaeom. We hope everyone who visits Hwaeomsa this autumn will return carrying in their hearts a small lantern of their own”.
Through the 22nd Hwaeom Cultural Festival, Hwaeomsa plans not to stop at preserving the history and tradition of a millennia-old temple, but to present a new model for temple-culture festivals that connect tradition and modernity, practice and art, temple and local community, Korea and the world.
It also plans to develop the three-day program into a stay-type cultural tourism content linked with the nature·culture·tourism resources of Gurye and Jirisan, and, in the long term, to grow it into an international temple culture and arts festival visited together by domestic and overseas tourists, artists, and yoga·meditation practitioners.
• 13:30 Ceremonial moving of the Gwaebul (Hwaeomsa Yeongsanhoe Gwaebul painting, 12.08×769.4cm) and Gwaebuljae
• Application: From 10:00 a.m., Friday, September 18, via the Hwaeomsa website
