Koreans are mainly distributed in the Korean peninsula, and are the main ethnic groups in North Korea and South Korea, with a population of more than 70 million. Except North Korea and South Korea, the population of China and the United States is over one million. According to the data of the sixth census in China in 20 10, there are about1830,000 Koreans in China, while according to the survey of the US Census Bureau in 20 12, there are about1700,000 Korean Americans.
First, eating habits:
Korean diet is mainly light and less greasy. Rice is the most common staple food for Koreans. Bibimbap, kimbap, Korean fried rice cake and kimchi fried rice are all common staple foods in Korean diet. Beef is the most expensive meat in Korea. South Korea is surrounded by the sea on three sides, so seafood is also an important staple food for Koreans.
Soup is not a side dish in Korean national diet before and after meals, but a main course eaten with staple food. Soup in Korean diet usually contains meat or seafood. Common soups include Ginseng Chicken Soup, Miso Soup, Xiannong Soup, jiaozi Soup, Pickle Pot, Pure Bean Curd Soup and Seaweed Soup.
Kimchi is an important part of Korean diet. There are many kinds of kimchi, and there are different kinds in different parts of Korea. Koreans also eat different pickles in different seasons. Kimchi is one of the healthiest foods, low in calories, rich in cellulose, vitamins and a kind of lactic acid bacteria beneficial to human body.
Second, the folk etiquette:
The Korean nation has attached great importance to life etiquette since ancient times. There are many ceremonies from birth to death, among which the main ceremonies are birth ceremony, coronation ceremony and gift, wedding ceremony, birthday ceremony, funeral ceremony and sacrifice ceremony.
1, Birth Ceremony: Koreans regard birth ceremony as the beginning ceremony of life, which is very particular. There are "no rope", "one hundred days" and "grasping the week" in the birth ceremony.
2. Wedding: It is the most important event in Korean life etiquette. In the past, there was a lot of red tape around weddings. Although the scale, complexity and specific way of the wedding have changed and developed with the evolution of the times, the basic content and procedures of the wedding have not changed significantly. Weddings are still held in the order of "discussing marriage", "winning prizes", "winning money" and "welcoming relatives".
3. Birthday gifts: Koreans also pay special attention to organizing "birthday gifts" for the elderly. There are sixty "flowers" and seventy "old and rare" birthday gifts, and a "retrospective wedding" to commemorate the 60th wedding anniversary. Huajia is a birthday party held by Korean people for the 60-year-old. According to the traditional calendar heavenly stems and earthly branches extrapolation algorithm, sixty years is regarded as a periodic unit. Therefore, Koreans regard 60 years old as a watershed on the road of life, which is particularly particular. On the day of the flower banquet, the children put on special dresses for the elderly, held a birthday party in the hall, invited relatives and friends to get together and thanked their parents for their kindness. Offering a birthday is a basic ceremony. The old man with a flower shell sat in the middle of the birthday banquet and the birthday sacrifice began. In the order of children, relatives and even guests.
4. Funeral Ceremony: Since ancient times, Koreans have put filial piety in the first place and attached great importance to funerals and ceremonies. Funeral mainly includes procedures such as evocation, small collection, large collection, coffin transportation, funeral, burial and monument erection. When burying, please ask Mr. Feng Shui to choose the cemetery first. When the coffin was put into the grave, it was in the hillside grave, with its head facing the top of the mountain. In a flat grave, head facing north. In order to rely on the collective strength to handle the funeral, there used to be a kind of non-governmental organization, such as "funeral deed", in the villages where Korean people lived together to unite the neighbors and solve the specific difficulties encountered in the funeral.
Third, sports:
Korean people love sports. Wrestling is their ancient sports and recreational activities, swinging and springboard are women's favorite recreational sports, and football is a popular sports activity for men. From towns to villages, there are generally their own football teams. Generally, students above the fourth grade of primary school organize football. There are some women's football teams. During festivals and holidays, various sports competitions centered on football are often held.
Fourth, music and dance:
There are many forms of Korean traditional folk music, mainly including pansori, farm music and Sandiao. Among them, Pansori, as a traditional folk art form of Korean nationality, is listed in the representative list of human intangible cultural heritage. Nongle and Sandiao are included in the important intangible cultural heritage of Korea. Arirang is one of the favorite traditional folk songs of the Korean people, with beautiful tunes. In the spread of Arirang, due to the different temperament, hobbies and habits of singers from different places, different varieties were formed and gradually gathered into a huge ballad group.
Korean dance has its own distinctive national characteristics, mainly including agricultural music dance, long drum dance, fan dance, elephant hat dance, top water dance, knife dance and so on. Among them, agricultural music dance is one of the popular folk dances of Korean nationality, which evolved from agricultural music games. The performance is dominated by percussion instruments and gongs and drums, with more than a dozen gongs playing the leading role. The beginning, middle transition and end of the dance are all directed by the gong sound. When performing, there must be a flag bearer, write the eight characters "Farmers are the greatest in the world" on the flag, stand in front of the flag bearer, and dance with great pride. In addition, Changgu Dance is also one of the representative dances of Korean nationality, which is famous at home and abroad for its unique, elegant and elegant dance. Long drum dance is mainly performed with soft movements such as carrying hands, stretching shoulders and striding like a sparrow. When performing, you should carry a long drum on your shoulder and hold a drum whip in your right hand, jumping and knocking. Body, drum and spirit are integrated, highly coordinated and unified, and there are many dances such as solo, duet and group dance.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) national costume:
The biggest feature of Korean traditional costumes is that they are oblique, have no buttons, and are tied with long cloth belts. The clothes of men and women are very different. Men wear pants and women wear skirts. Men's wear is characterized by wide crotch and trouser legs, which are tied with cloth belts to facilitate sitting cross-legged; The woman is a long skirt with short sleeves, the length of the coat is just enough to cover the chest, and the long skirt is as long as the heel.
Due to the plane cutting method, the Korean national costumes are simple and bright in straight lines and elegant and changeable in curves, which perfectly embodies the beauty of straight lines and curves. At the same time, the color matching of Korean clothing follows the principle of "Yin-Yang and Five Elements", and different styles are interpreted by the color and material of clothing, so that the color matching and approximate color matching complement each other. But in general, bright colors are used for tops and dark colors for bottoms are the most classic.
Traditional Korean costumes mostly follow the folk costumes of the Li Dynasty, which were gradually formed and shaped by the Korean people in their long-term production and life, and retained the remarkable characteristics of Korean folk costumes. In addition, the society, culture and folk customs of ancient Korea were deeply influenced by the culture of the Central Plains, so they borrowed a lot from the costumes of the Sui and Tang Dynasties in the Central Plains, which had important reference value for studying the social production and lifestyle at that time.
One of the symbols of Korean national cultural accomplishment is that people pay great attention to clothes and appearance. Moreover, another feature of North Korea's clothing is that it always likes to wear white clothes and plain clothes, which has long been recorded in Chinese and Korean history books. "Sui Shu" (Volume 81) records that "Silla's clothes are slightly like those of Korea and Baekje in the Three Kingdoms, and the clothes are still plain in color". Therefore, it is called "white nation". According to the "Korean Xuanhe National Classic" (Volume 19), North Korea "has a long history of agriculture, industry and commerce, agriculture is not rich, and business is far and near, and its clothes are all white bamboo." There have been many debates in history about why Koreans like to wear white clothes. Among them, it is generally believed that wearing white clothes stems from advocating the sun god. In ancient times, Koreans, like other nationalities, worshipped the sun, moon and stars as gods. This belief in the gods directly affects people's choice of clothes color. However, this statement alone is obviously not enough to explain the white dress custom of the Korean nation. The formation of the custom of Korean white clothes comes from many factors: first, the lack of colored clothing materials, the main clothing materials of Korean since ancient times are white linen, ramie and cotton; Second, the clothing system formulated by the Korean nation during the Three Kingdoms period, the Koryo period and the Li Dynasty prohibited people from wearing colorful clothes; The third is that the Korean nation has been "clean and white" since ancient times. No matter what the origin of the custom of white clothes in North Korea is, in the process of being handed down from generation to generation, "white clothes" has become a national symbol in the eyes of the Korean nation.