Do you know what is onggi? Onggi is a kind of pottery that was first made four centuries ago. Especially, Korean traditional onggi is good to use when we store food for a long time, keeping the food fresh.

In Ulsan, Onggi Festival has been held since 2000. Onggi masters, who are designated as an intangible cultural asset in Oegosan Onggi Village, have been chosen to host the Onggi Festival with Ulju-gun Office, and this is held in May.

During the festival, visitors can enjoy the performance of Onggi masters and can see the intangible cultural property. Also, they can make their own onggi, play with soil that is used to make onggi, and eat the food items which are cooked in a kiln, too.

▲ Onggi master demonstrated people how to make onggi

For the most part, Onggi Festival is held in May every year. However, Onggi Festival 2020 was held in November both online and offline because of the spread of COVID-19, a global influenza pandemic. Online, people enjoyed the opening ceremony and the live concert of famous singers. They also answered the quiz about onggi, and received the onggi kit which could make a variety of traditional fermented sauces of South Korea such as gochujang and doenjang. Also, people who joined offline visited Onggi Village and enjoyed the activity, keeping social distancing.

Including these efforts of the organizers of Onggi Festival, Onggi Festival was awarded Untact Festival Special Awards by Korea Festival Contents Awards of Korea Festival Contents Association in 2021. During the ten days that the festival was being celebrated, which was exactly from November 6 to November 15, there were about 385,000 people who enjoyed the festival online, and 29,000 people joined the festival offline. Ulsan Onggi Festival was also awarded Festival Economy Grand Prize in 2017 and 2018. In 2019 and 2020, they got the Festival Contents Grand Prize, too.

By Yuna Kim