Sunday, February 10, 2013

Happy pre-New Year

Koreans are celebrating Lunar New Year on February 9, 10, and 11. The 10th is the actual day of days, but Koreans normally get the day before and the day after off. Lunar New Year (called Seollal in Korean, with the "eo" in "Seol" sounding somewhere between "aw" and "uh") is a big family occasion, and is a much bigger holiday than is solar New Year (i.e., January 1 on the Western calendar). Part of the reason why Koreans have the day before New Year's off is so that they can travel cross-country to be with their relatives. As is true of New York, many Seoulites aren't originally from Seoul; their hometowns are way down south. The freeways clog up at this time of year; a three-hour drive from Seoul to Busan can easily become a nightmarish, fourteen-hour odyssey-- all just to spend a single full day with the folks before having to brave the northbound traffic back to Seoul.

I have no one to celebrate New Year's with this year; in fact, I'll be tutoring tomorrow.

This year is the Year of the Snake. Snake is Schlang in German. It's gonna be a good year.


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2 comments:

  1. It's also the beginning of the Jewish month Adar. Us lunar calendar peeps gotta stick together!

    Happy Jahr des Schlanges.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Sling a Schlang!" as the mooning lunatics annually shout in traditional holiday greeting.

    Jeffery Hodges

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    ReplyDelete

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