SEOUL, January 26 (AJP) -Ipchun — the first of the 24 solar terms and the quiet and unseeming threshold of spring — is nearing. Before buds appear or fields turn green, the change arrives as ritual, rhythm and light.
From Feb. 2 through Ipchun Day on Feb. 4, Jeju will host the Tamna Kingdom Ipchun Gut, a ceremonial opening of spring rooted in the island’s ancient agricultural memory. The event will unfold at Gwandukjeong Pavilion and the Jeju Mok Government Office site, spaces long entwined with Jeju’s civic and spiritual life.
Organized by the Jeju Federation of Arts and Culture, the festival revives communal rites that trace back to the era of the Tamna Kingdom, when the arrival of spring was not a date on a calendar but a matter of survival and shared hope. Through chants, movement and offerings, the gut marks the land’s awakening — and the people’s.
This year’s theme, “Nal Berong Ttang Umjjak, Spring Stirs,” is expressed in the Jeju dialect, evoking the moment when warmth begins to seep into the soil and the earth itself seems to stretch after winter. Across four categories, 21 programs reinterpret those ancestral gestures, blending shamanistic ritual, agricultural tradition and communal celebration.
The island has already begun to signal what is coming.
On Jan. 25, ipchun chundeung lanterns were lit around the Jeju Mok Government Office site — quiet beacons announcing that spring is on its way. Hanging against the winter sky, they do not rush the season. They wait, as Jeju always has, for the land to answer.
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