Gimjang

What it is

For people in Korea, kimchi is a fermented vegetable dish that turns up beside almost any meal, and it holds an important place in the culture. In the warm months, small batches are made fresh from whatever vegetables are in season. Gimjang is the other half of the year's rhythm. Starting in the tenth month, households set aside about a month to prepare kimchi in quantities far bigger than usual, enough to carry them through the cold. The point is not one meal but many: food that keeps when nothing fresh is growing.

Origins and history

Recipes for kimchi go back at least to the thirteenth century. In those older versions the dish was made from vegetables and pickles, with salt, or with alcohol and salt together. Red pepper was added in the seventeenth century. Kimchi today is usually made from napa cabbage and white radish, though there are hundreds of variations, and turnip, leeks, carrots and garlic appear as well. The gimjang custom was listed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in December 2013, and it is the 133rd Korean Intangible Cultural Property.

Working together

The task is heavy and no household is expected to carry it alone. Families, relatives and neighbours share the labour, gathering to cut the vegetables, wash them, and work salt into them. The salt cures the food and starts fermentation. Working in a group makes a large batch manageable, and the work is shared rather than left to one pair of hands. Knowledge moves the same way, from those who already keep gimjang to those learning it, so quantities, timing and seasoning are passed down rather than written out. Even in cities, where refrigeration is easy to come by, the shared custom is still handed on.

Cold storage, then and now

Kimchi is not easy to hold for months at a time. Cold that goes too far freezes it; warmth that lingers lets it ferment on until it turns sour. Before modern refrigeration, the answer was earthenware. Jars were buried in the ground up to their necks, which kept the contents from freezing, and once the temperature fell below zero the fermentation stopped and the food was preserved. Spring warmed the ground and fermentation began again. Today many city households still keep jars of fermenting kimchi on balconies, and it is increasingly common to own a refrigerator used only for kimchi, since its strong smell can taint other food.

How Gimjang is kept

The season runs through November, when the fields and markets are full of crops. Families, relatives and neighbours join forces. They cut the vegetables, wash them, and salt them so the food cures and fermentation begins. Then the batch is packed into containers. Traditionally these were earthenware jars sunk into the ground up to the neck, where the cold stopped fermentation and held the food through winter. In cities today, jars often sit on balconies, and many households use a refrigerator kept only for kimchi.

When and where

Gimjang takes place in late autumn, over about one month that begins with the tenth month of the year. In practice this means November, when the weather cools and the crops are in. Kimchi made then is meant to last the winter, with fermentation stopping once temperatures fall below freezing and beginning again in spring.

Gimjang is a Korean custom, kept by households across Korea, in farm villages and in city flats alike. It is recognised nationally as a Korean intangible cultural property, and UNESCO added it to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in December 2013.

What Gimjang means

For the people who keep it, gimjang is more than storage. Kimchi sits at the centre of Korean eating, served with almost every meal, and the annual batch is a sign that the household is ready for winter. The work is shared, so the season also renews ties between family, relatives and neighbours. UNESCO's recognition in 2013 treated the practice as living heritage, passed on by communities rather than fixed in a single recipe, and it continues to be handed down even as refrigeration changes how the food is kept.

On the table

Flavours: Chilli Garlic

Questions people ask about Gimjang

See also

GanggangsullaeA Korean harvest dance where women hold hands and sing in circles under the full moonDaeboreumA Korean festival of the first lunar full moon, marked by fires, wishes and feastsChuseokA Korean harvest festival of ancestral rites, seasonal rice cakes, and folk gamesHarissaA spicy chili pepper paste from Tunisia, used as a condiment and ingredient across North Africa.

Good reading and sources

• Gimjang on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.