Juldarigi is an important part of several agricultural celebrations, and is a common event at the Daeboreum lunar festival.[1]
As with many Korean rural folk traditions, the sport is regarded as a predictor of future events, specifically harvests. The outcome of a ritualised contest between the two sides of a village (East and West) was seen as an indicator of the abundance (or otherwise) of that year's rice crop, which would be harvested in the autumn; as a result, juldarigi and similar folk sports are predominant in the rice-growing areas of the South.[1][2] This is due to the common association in Southeast Asia between dragons (which the ropes of the juldarigi are thought to resemble) and rain; as a result juldarigi or similar tug-of-war ceremonies have also historically been staged during periods of drought.[3] The connection of the two ropes used (with one rope's smaller loop being placed through the other's larger loop) is reminiscent of sexual intercourse, which also gives rise to the sport's association with fecundity.[1]