Archive for the 'Celebrations' Category

Jan

Happy 2011

May this year be all you are hoping for. Happy New Year from Daejeon, South Korea.

posted by Kathryn in Celebrations,Daejeon,Holidays,Home Life,Off time and have No Comments

Dec

Merry Christmas from Maple Kinder

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Nov

Pepero Day is celebrated here in South Korea by giving people “Peperos” (빼빼로). They are long skinny cookies sticks dipped in chocolate. Very yummy! If you’re a teacher, you usually end up with tons of them. Personally, I only eat Peperos on Pepero Day. By the time the tenth student offers them to you, you get pretty sick of them. Surprisingly, I got quite the haul today. I’ll be feeding them to to kids for weeks. Coincidently, the best bulk ones are the ones that come in the green box. They have almonds in the chocolate.

I have a pile of these things sitting on my desk. I’ll probably throw some in the box I send home with Christmas gifts. The rest I’ll give out as treats to the kids, in moderation of course. The vast majority of my kids today were way high on sugar.

The legend is that Pepero Day started in Busan. A bunch of girls started exchanging the snack and wishing each other that they would become as tall and thin as a Pepero. Nice legend. But more likely it was started by the folks at Lotte who make Peperos. It’s a true Korean “Hallmark” holiday.

Pepero Day is always celebrated on November 11th. Why that day? When you write the date at 11/11, it looks like four Peperos standing side by side.

See Wikipedia (who else?) for more information and links.

posted by Kathryn in Celebrations,Fun things,Korea and have No Comments

Sep

Pre-Chuseok Party

Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) is next week. Since we’re on vacation next week, we had our party today. Yay for parties!

The kids wore their hanbok (traditonal Korean clothing). We made songpyong (rice cakes stuffed with sesame seeds). We played yootnori (a game played with four sticks) and jaegi (kind of like hackysack). The kids did the ganggangsullae (a traditional dance).

The kids looked wonderful in their hanbok. The songpyong were delicious. I think a good time was had by all.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Celebrations,Food and Drink,Fun things,Games,Holidays,Korean Vocabulary,Maple Square,Pictures,Staff,Students and have No Comments

May

Happy Children’s Day 2010

May 5 (in Korea) is Children’s Day (어린이날). Apparently the holiday was created in the early 1920s by the Korean children’s author, Bang Jung-Hwan. Typically parents and children do kid type activities and the children receive gifts from their parents, teachers and friends.

Hillary Clinton even wished the kids a happy Children’s Day.

Millie and Paul

posted by Kathryn in Celebrations,Korea,Students and have No Comments

Mar

March 1st Movement

Today is March 1st, and thus a national holiday here in South Korea. March 1st is a day commemorating one of the earliest instances of Korea’s resistance against the Japanese. The events took place on March 1, 1919. On that day approximately 7000 Koreans were killed by the Japanese.

A group of 33 people gathered at a restaurant in Seoul to read the Korean Declaration of Independence.

For more information see:

Wikipedia – March 1st Movement
Wikipedia – Korean Declaration of Independence
Text - Korean Declaration of Independence (pdf)
Photo – Korean Declaration of Independence

posted by Kathryn in Celebrations,Holidays,Korea and have No Comments

Feb

Happy New Year!

Today is Seollal (설날), or Lunar New Year. It’s a time when Koreans travel to the homes where they grew up and celebrate the new year. In that way, it’s similar to Chuseok. They dress in Hanbok, the traditonal Korean dress. One traditional food eaten during Seollal is tteokguk, which is a soup with rice cakes. Although I didn’t have it this year, I did make it last year. A student’s mother gave me a number of packages of rice cakes as a gift.

One traditional activity is kite flying. I was wandering around Ulsan today, but I didn’t get to any of the parks. At least that’s where I assume people would be flying kites. Another tradition is called Sebae. Children show respect to their elders and wish them a happy new year by bowing deeply and saying “saehae bok manhi badeuseyo” which translates to “please receive many blessings in the new year”. Children are rewarded with money, usually in the form of brand new bills.

More information can be found at the following sites: