"Reading Beyond Fear: National Folk Museum Hosts 'Evening Ghost Stories'"

Five Sessions from September to October
Featuring "Chilling Folk Walk" and "Ghost Story Salon"

Exploring Life, Death, and the Psychology of Communities in Ghost Stories with Professor Choi Kisuk of Yonsei University

Nighttime Experiential

The National Folk Museum announced on August 31 that it will operate an experiential humanities program for adults entitled "Evening Ghost Stories: A Chilling Folk Walk," which offers participants the opportunity to stroll through the museum on an autumn night and explore the human and social dimensions within folk ghost tales.

The National Folk Museum will operate an experiential humanities program for adults, titled Evening Ghost Story Gathering: A Chilling Folk Walk, from September to October. Photo by National Folk Museum.

The program will be held a total of five times at the National Folk Museum’s Traditional Culture Learning Center and outdoor exhibition area from September 16 to October 28. It will take place on September 16, September 30, October 7, October 14, and October 28, with each session running for 90 minutes from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

The "Evening Ghost Stories" program is not just a typical spooky storytelling event but a humanities program that examines perspectives on life and death, the psychology of communities, and contemporary anxieties and desires through ghost stories. Participants will be able to explore how ghost tales have reflected the times and society, drawing on a variety of stories about spirits from Korea and across Asia.

The lectures will be given by Choi Kisuk, a professor at Yonsei University who specializes in classical cultural content. The museum explained that it intends to interpret ghost stories, which have taken on different forms from ancient folktales to modern cultural content, from literary, cultural, and social perspectives.

The program is characterized by the combination of outdoor exploration and lectures. First, during the approximately 30-minute "Chilling Folk Walk," participants will walk through the museum’s outdoor exhibition area after sunset, visiting Jangseung Hill, the traditional hanok "Ochon House," and "Bukchon Elementary School," a recreation of an old school. Afterwards, the group will move to a classroom for the "Ghost Story Salon."

In the "Ghost Story Salon," the reasons why ghost stories continue to be created even in the era of advanced science and how the objects of fear have changed over time are analyzed from psychological and cultural perspectives. The museum said the event will not be a one-sided lecture but will be run in an interactive format, allowing the lecturer and participants to ask questions and engage in dialogue.

Each session is limited to 20 adult participants on a first-come, first-served basis, and participation is free of charge. Applications can be made online via the National Folk Museum website from September 1, and each person may apply for only one session. For more details, inquiries can be made to the Museum Education Department of the National Folk Museum.

A representative from the National Folk Museum commented, "Ghost stories are not simply frightening tales, but fascinating cultural records that reveal what people of a certain era feared and desired. We hope this program will provide participants with the chance to view familiar ghost stories from a new perspective while strolling through the museum on an autumn night, and to discover aspects of ourselves as we live today."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.