Today is the Lunar New Year holiday, which is celebrated widely among countries in Asia, including China's infamous "Chinese New Year." Today I found myself in a traditional Korean hanbock, visiting various houses that belong to relatives of my Korean family. It was funny how I seemed to be the only one wearing a hanbock. When my sister sent me a text message yesterday asking me if I would like to wear a hanbock on New year's Day, I sensed this might turn out to be the case... I responded to her with a text of my own: "Will you, your sister and mother wear hanbocks?" To which she replied: "I don't think so." In the end I am very glad that I wore a hanbock, but it certainly made for an interesting holiday. It's enough to be the only foreigner at these family functions, but try being the only foreigner and the only person wearing the traditional Korean dress. As my family and I traveled around the countryside, I couldn't help but laugh at what a funny little group we made. Four well dressed, trendy, urban Koreans and me, their token foreigner who they had dressed up in a traditional Korean hanbock for the holidays. To say that I was the ONLY person wearing a hanbock is not entirely true. There were two grandpas wearing traditional Korean outfits at my house in Jeju City (this is 2 people among 30, and both over the age of 70) and when we got to the countryside there were two children under 5 years old wearing hanbocks and two more grandparents sporting the traditional garb.
Here is a picture of me with two of the grandparents and one of the children who was also wearing a hanbock. The man and woman in regular clothes are my Korean parents.
All the men sat around a long table in the living room and both bedrooms were used for women and children...
We ate a variety of things including: octopus, kimchi (of course), rice cake soup, cucumbers, fried egg, fried meat, noodles, and fruit for dessert. Today was my 28th birthday in Korea, in fact it was everyone's birthday. This is the biggest, most important holiday in Korea, and instead of exchanging gifts everyone just gives the younger ones money. The traditional way to receive the money is to do a full bow, all the way to the ground and say "Happy New Year" in Korean. Then you get 10,000 won (the equivalent of $10 USD). Usually you stop receiving money when you're in college and are obligated to give it after college, but thanks to my host father, I received $30,000 won today. I can only imagine how much my sisters pocketed, but it must be somewhere between $80-100,000 won. All in all this holiday was great, and slightly more relaxed than Chuseok. I don't know if that's because Chuseok was my first holiday so they went out of their way to show me a good time or if it's always like that.
Here is a picture of me with two of the grandparents and one of the children who was also wearing a hanbock. The man and woman in regular clothes are my Korean parents.
All the men sat around a long table in the living room and both bedrooms were used for women and children...
We ate a variety of things including: octopus, kimchi (of course), rice cake soup, cucumbers, fried egg, fried meat, noodles, and fruit for dessert. Today was my 28th birthday in Korea, in fact it was everyone's birthday. This is the biggest, most important holiday in Korea, and instead of exchanging gifts everyone just gives the younger ones money. The traditional way to receive the money is to do a full bow, all the way to the ground and say "Happy New Year" in Korean. Then you get 10,000 won (the equivalent of $10 USD). Usually you stop receiving money when you're in college and are obligated to give it after college, but thanks to my host father, I received $30,000 won today. I can only imagine how much my sisters pocketed, but it must be somewhere between $80-100,000 won. All in all this holiday was great, and slightly more relaxed than Chuseok. I don't know if that's because Chuseok was my first holiday so they went out of their way to show me a good time or if it's always like that.
No comments:
Post a Comment