Climate change wreaks havoc on spring and winter festival schedules

People gather to view cherry blossoms during the Jinhae Gunhang Festival held in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, on March 26, 2023. [YONHAP]

Climate change is affecting the timing of festivals in Korea, with cherry blossom festivals held earlier and winter festivals canceled.

According to the Korea Meteorological Administration and Korea Forest Service, this year’s cherry blossoms will start to bloom a day or even a week earlier than the average annual blooming period.

Cherry blossoms will bloom starting with Jeju Island — Korea's southernmost province — on March 20.

Jeonju in North Jeolla will see cherry blossoms on March 22, followed by Busan and Ulsan on March 24, Yeosu and Pohang on March 25, Daejeon on March 27 and Gangneung on March 30.

The 62nd Jinhae Gunhang Festival will kick off on March 22 and run until April 1, according to officials of Changwon, South Gyeongsang, on Feb. 15. This is two weeks earlier than when the festival first started on April 5, 1963, 60 years ago.

The festival, one of Korea's biggest cherry blossom events, began on April 1 every year from 2010 to 2019.

It was put to a halt from 2020 to 2022 due to Covid-19.

However, the first festival after the pandemic was moved to March 25 last year and will begin three days earlier this year.

Other spring flower festivals are preparing earlier this year as the flowering season approaches.

The Gwangyang Maehwa Festival held in South Jeolla will begin on March 8, two days earlier than last year.

Maehwa is Korean for plum blossom.

The Nakdong River Youchae (Rapeseed Flower) Festival, held in Changnyeong, South Gyeongsang, will be held two days earlier than last year, starting on April 11.

A research paper published in 2023, "100 Years of Flowering Data Demonstrate Dramatic Impact of Climate Change," found that climate change caused early spring flowering in Korea.

Conducted by Professor Lee Sang-don from Ewha Womans University and a research team from the United Kingdom and the United States, the study revealed that plum blossoms were blooming 53 days earlier, forsythia 23 days earlier and cherry blossoms 21 days earlier than 100 years ago.

While spring festivals were pushed forward, winter festivals were canceled.

The Andong Amsan Ice Festival, which was supposed to take place in North Gyeongsang from Jan. 20 to 28, had to be canceled due to safety concerns. The ice was only 3 centimeters (1.18 inches) thick, far from the required 25 centimeters to hold over 1,000 people at once.

The Inje Smelt Festival, scheduled initially for Jan. 19 to 28 in Gangwon, was also canceled due to insufficient ice.

“Ice not freezing and the spring flowers blooming earlier are evidence that climate change is proceeding quickly,” Park Jong-Kwon, co-head of the non-governmental organization Gyeongnam Climate Strike, told the JoongAng Ilbo. “People should actively take action to prevent global warming, such as decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.”

BY WE SUNG-WOOK, KIM JI-YE [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr]