Archive for the 'Holidays' Category

Dec

Merry Christmas from Maple Kinder

posted by Kathryn in Celebrations,Holidays,Maple Square,Pictures,Students and have No Comments

Dec

Snowman Sock Puppet

Sorry folks, life has been hectic.

It’s December, thus the snow on the blog and the snowman puppets. I post this only because I feel so proud of Spring Class. OK, I really feel proud of myself. When I started in July, one of my first art classes with Spring was the snail sock puppet. It left me in tears and questioning my ability to teach at MapleSquare. I swear, they looked liked lumpy socks with eyes. Not so with the snowmen. Granted, I’ve learned a thing or two over the last few months (like always make a sample so you know how to do it).

So I proudly present Spring Class and their sock snowmen.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Arts and Crafts,Holidays,Maple Square,Pictures,Students 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

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: