Abundant Autumn: Come to Hwaseong City for Harvest Experience

Shinoe 1-dong in Hwaseong City, a rural village renowned as a pristine area and home to the country's only turju-gari traditional sweets and a 500-year-old nettle tree that guards the village, is preparing a local festival where visitors can enjoy abundant autumn harvest experiences.

The festival, held on the 24th in the Shinoe 1-dong area, is being conducted as part of the Hwaseong City-supported indigenous specialty festival to preserve the identity of the region, with planning and operations led by the Shinoe 1-tong Festival Committee composed of village residents.

The festival offers traditional farming experiences including rice harvesting, threshing, and operating traditional mills, as well as ecological experiences in the pristine Sihwa Lake reed wetlands and agricultural product sales cultivated directly by Shinoe 1-dong villagers, providing diverse programs in which all family members can participate.

Particularly noteworthy, the exhibition of traditional farming tools such as jangseung and sotdae (traditional wooden poles) handcrafted by village residents for the festival since 2010, along with traditional A-frames, mills, and foot-powered mortars, will provide children with another educational opportunity.

Kim Yong-seop, chairman of the festival promotion committee, said: "The festival aims to promote unity among village residents and to publicize pristine agricultural products that residents have carefully cultivated since spring. It will also serve to preserve the identity of rural villages," adding, "For urban residents, it will be an opportunity to enjoy nature with their families and experience traditional agricultural culture."