The Lunar New Year has arrived. I really didn't know much about the holiday...(probably because we don't celebrate it)....but I thought it would be worth while to learn a bit about it. Above is a picture of what some Korean kids may dress up like when they go to visit families on this special day. They warned us: "The roads will be packed...don't drive." They were correct. I drove to Osan (another Air Force base) this weekend and the lanes heading out of Seoul were an absolute standstill...it looked like a parking lot.
Everybody jumps in their family cars and drives (much like our Thanksgiving or Christmas day). This holiday benefited us as well (we got a 3 day weekend out of it.) I got a chance to go to Osan and do some much needed chilling out as well....I even had enough time to do a quick re-read of some C.S. Lewis books...
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the holiday:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The lunar new year is the first new moon of the first lunar month in the year. It is celebrated by many different cultures around the world. The Lunar New Year is followed by the Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year is normally in February. The Lunar New Year signifies the start of a new lunar year.
The lunar calendar is very ancient, dating back nearly 4700 years, and is used in many Asian countries, including Mainland China, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, etc. Consequently, the Lunar New Year is also celebrated simultaneously in many of the Asian countries; due to their historic and diplomatic ties with the ancient Chinese empire, there are many similarities in the way that the Lunar New Year is celebrated in their respective countries.
2 comments:
Oh my, those kids are way too adorable! :D
Ed!! Very interesting tidbits. For some reason your blog dropped off my feed reader, so I just now read the last 5 or so entries. Glad you experienced bulgogi--I just cooked some not too long ago for a partay at my house. My fam picked up the recipe in Germany--several army dudes had Korean wives, so we learned how to do it right. ;)
BTW those kids rock.
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