Who knew there was so much mask history out there? Well now
I do. It seems every place in the world, for their own special reasons, has a
mask. I was able to see thousands of these at a mask museum in Andong. The
museum was less than two dollars and huge and full of a multitude of shapes,
colors and sizes of masks. Some scary, others bright and decorative, others
still boring or plain. We saw many masks from Korea, but many more from other
countries across the globe.
It seemed appropriate to make the visit to this particular museum on the same trip as going to the fortieth annual Andong Mask Festival. The festival was lively and crowded. There were lines of stalls and tents selling food and drink and knives and socks (??). Some arts and crafts tents for making your own mask. Several stages were set up, some for music, some for dancing, and a huge main stage in the middle, so densely surrounded by people it was hard to see. But the chanting was so loud and could be heard from anywhere at the festival grounds. Chilling and sweet. Women dressed in traditional Korean garb, called a hanbok, were doing the princess dance that reenacts the fleeing of the princess from the town/city upon the many foreign invasions that have taken place over the hundreds of years.
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