From ROK Drop, the following headline:
SOUTH KOREAN GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES EXTENSION OF CHUSEOK HOLIDAY
President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday the government will designate Oct. 2 a temporary holiday to create a six-day extended break from Chuseok and help boost domestic tourism and the economy.
Yoon made the remark while presiding over a regular meeting on the economy and public livelihood issues, saying the government will also distribute 600,000 hotel discount coupons and waive expressway tolls during the holiday period.
This year’s Chuseok fall harvest holiday will run from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1, which means the temporary holiday will be a bridge to Oct. 3 National Foundation Day, another public holiday.
Most years, when I'm doing my long walks, I normally take advantage of Chuseok (a.k.a. "Korean Thanksgiving," although that's not entirely accurate) as a way to pad my vacation days. This year, though, I'm departing in mid-October, which is the time of year when there are no national holidays to hide behind. So somehow, my boss is going to have to explain to our CEO that I will have put in extra "comp" hours, before my October 14 departure, to make up for the time I'm taking off for vacation. Will the CEO swallow this? I have no idea. Korean bosses generally take a dim view of comp time and extended vacations. It's not so much a question of real productivity (Korea has one of the lowest productivity ratings of all the OECD nations) as it is a question of looking productive. In an often-superficial culture, externals are all that matter. On the bright side, I can enjoy a long Chuseok holiday, which—for once—won't be spent walking eight or nine hours a day.
Sweet! How are you going to spend that time? I'd suggest a trip out of town, but then I remember what Chuseok traffic is like. Sometimes, doing nothing at all is the best kind of celebration.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember the last time I had a paid holiday, vacation, or even a day off. Retired life is such a grind!
I'll probably be a lazy slob for a chunk of it, but I might also take the opportunity to do some local walking. There's actually a detour on the way down to Bundang that I've been curious about. There's also a stretch of the Han River path, way off to the west, that I'd like to explore. And late September/early October will be the perfect time of year to do that. The Han River segment is accessible by subway, and the detour-before-Bundang is accessible on foot.
ReplyDeleteI'll be doing the same exact thing I would have otherwise been doing: frantically trying to finish up various papers for an Oct. 1st deadline. Maybe it will be slightly less frantic with no one around to bother me.
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