has been added to Unesco’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Korea’s Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) announced yesterday.
The decision was made at a meeting of Unesco’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, held from Dec. 2 to 7 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
“The committee members recognized that kimjang - which has been handed down for generations in Korean homes - represents Korea’s culture of sharing and networking ahead of winter and gives Koreans a sense of identity and belongingness through bonding and solidarity,” the CHA said in a statement.
Kimjang usually takes place between November and December and has been a way of preparing and storing nutritious vegetables for use during the long, harsh winters. Today, fresh vegetables can be bought at any time of the year, and there are plenty of vegetables to choose from beyond the cabbage or radish used in the most basic types of kimchi.
But Koreans stick to the long tradition of kimjang, even in smaller, non-nuclear families.