The Queen’s Birthday Banquet Comes Back to Life ... ‘Jinjakrye’ Performance at Yeongyeongdang Hall, Changdeokgung Palace

[Financial News] A royal banquet arranged by Crown Prince Hyomyeong to celebrate the birthday of his mother, Queen Sunwon, will be revived in the rear garden of Changdeokgung Palace.
According to the Changdeokgung Management Office of the Royal Palaces and Tombs Center under the Korea Heritage Service on the 28th, a restored performance of the ‘Jinjakrye at Yeongyeongdang in the Muja Year of King Sunjo of Joseon’ will be staged jointly with the World Ethnic Dance Research Institute, affiliated with the School of Dance at Korea National University of Arts, at Yeongyeongdang Hall in the rear garden of Changdeokgung Palace in Jongno District, Seoul, at 11 a.m. each day on November 3 and 4.
Jinjakrye was a ceremony held on special royal occasions, at which officials offered wine and food to the king and paid their respects. This performance is a historically researched and restored recreation, based on the records in the ‘Sunjo Muja Jinjakeuigwe,’ of the court banquet Crown Prince Hyomyeong held at Yeongyeongdang in the sixth lunar month of 1828 to celebrate Queen Sunwon’s 40th birthday.
Uigwe are records that document in writing and illustrations the formats and procedures required for major royal events. The Uigwe of the Joseon Dynasty was inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2007.
The performance will present 10 of the 17 court dances recorded in the uigwe, including Bakjeopmu, Chungwangho, Chunaengjeon and Mangseonmun. Visitors can watch the dances in the very place where the Jinjakrye was held.
Bakjeopmu is a dance depicting butterflies frolicking among spring flowers with their golden wings spread. Chungwangho uses the image of the palace shining in the morning sunlight to wish for the splendor of royal power and an era of peace and prosperity for the country. Mangseonmun symbolizes an immortal descending on a crane and is the dance that opens the banquet.
Anyone visiting the rear garden of Changdeokgung Palace can watch the performance for free. However, a separate admission fee is required to enter the garden. More information is available on the Changdeokgung Management Office website.

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