Time-honoured “Songchon Handweaving Dance”

In the past, the weaving of clothes relied solely on manual labour, which had been a heavy burden for women for a long time. Handweaving works including spinning thread and weaving thread into cloth were a tedious and painful, long-continued sedentary work.

Therefore, women worked together singing songs to make things easier and relieve fatigue, and after work they danced to relieve the fatigue of work. The reason that “Songchon Handweaving Dance” has been known through generations is primarily that most women in the region, an old silk producing area, had danced Handweaving Dance during their weaving work.

The region also showed the peculiar custom of women specializing in silk production while men taking care of housework instead of them. Women in the region had improved their weaving skills under the active support of men. The finest and most compact texture of their silk product become famous in the country as a high-quality cloth.

“Songchon Handweaving Dance” was also more popular in connection with the "Cotton rose Legend" handed down in the area in the latter half of the feudal Joson dynasty. “Songchon Handweaving Dance”, that was prevalent among women in Songchon area, was composed of dance rhythm which showed their working life as they were and dance rhythm which wished for the success of labour.