Christmas in Korea - the Loneliest Time of Year?

   

So here I am typing this blog post at my desk at school the day after Christmas Day, which is an extremely strange feeling for me as I’m not used to working today. You see, in Ireland, the 26^th of December is known as St. Stephens’ Day. Who is St. Stephen you ask? To be honest, I really don’t have a clue. All I know is that he’s another saint that Ireland clings to and that in the past, a few fellas would capture a wren bird, stick him on top of a pole and parade him around the town. Don’t ask me why lads, just another one of those weird traditions I guess! Personally, I like to call it “Leftover Turkey Day” because at home, families usually pig out and eat the remaining food from Christmas Day. I’ve been trying pretty hard to stay away from Social Media for the day so the dreaded homesickness doesn’t set in, yet again. In order to distract myself, I’m going to give you an idea of how Christmas is celebrated here in South Korea and why it can be so difficult for a Westerner, such as myself, who sees Christmas as an essential occasion of the year.

Quartz

While Christmas Day is a red day in the South Korean national calendar, which is basically a bank holiday in Korea’s book, it is a normal day as usual. This can definitely put a damper on things as the so-called “Christmas Spirit” just isn’t there. In Korea, Christmas is instead marketed towards couples as is popular in the culture anyway. A friend of mine directed me towards an LA Times article, which states that Love Motels (another South Korean phenomenon), condoms and the Pill are in the highest demand at this time of year . This can be quite exclusive for those who grew up thinking that Christmas is a time to enjoy with a wide group of loved ones and those who desperately need to be included. Without the proper preparation, such as not booking an Airbnb or ordering the proper food off of GMarket; a popular site to order an amalgamation of things, especially useful for us waygooks, Christmas can be devastatingly lonely. I have been extremely fortunate by the fact that I have been constantly surrounded by friends for the holiday over the last year a half. While last year we opted for the option I just mentioned, this year was a pretty chill one. From a Mexican style Christmas Eve, to my friends and I going full Korean yesterday – by popping on the ondol (Korean underfloor heating system), ordering pizza and chicken and plopping ourselves on the floor to watch movies. The past two weekends, I attended Korean style pub crawls, showing off my Christmas jumper and entangled by my Daiso-bought Christmas lights, while annoying the DJ until he finally played the Irish Christmas classic "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues.

The crew before Seoul Pub Crawl 2018 - Megan Kavanagh

   

                                                                                           

                                                                                              Mexican style Christmas Eve!

                                          

                                                              

                                                                               Chicken and Pizza Christmas Day 2018 with the gals!

Thanks to technology, I have been able to Skype home each Christmas and virtually feel a part of the festivities.

                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                           Mr. Gizmo as "Santa Paws"                                                  

Also, I’ve been lucky enough to share my Christmas traditions with my students. Whether it was helping them make Christmas cards last year or explaining to them what a Christmas cracker or an advent calendar is this year. In a way, I feel bad for them in a sense. While they do have their own holidays where they receive gifts, such as Chuseok (Korean family harvest time), they will never experience the magic of impatiently waiting for Santa Claus to deliver presents on Christmas Eve. Likewise, this has opened my eyes to the concept of the term “Happy Holidays.” I admit that I’ve been quite ignorant of this expression and just thought it was America being awkward. With Christianity being the dominant religion back home in Ireland, sometimes you can forget that other religious holidays fall within this Winter season, such as Hanukah and Kwanzaa. And let’s face it, many of us only show up to church at Christmas to keep the mammy and daddy happy or saving face when it comes to the neighbours. We should all be able to celebrate whatever we like, however we like.

                                                              Managing to get into the Korea Times at Seoul Pub Crawl Santa Con 2017!

Probably the most important thing I did Christmas this year, or perhaps of all the other twenty four Christmases I’ve lived through, was pay a visit to the Salvation Army children’s Home here in Daejeon, my adopted city. As some of you may know, I volunteer here each Monday night with a few other fantastic ESL teachers. It’s nothing too special – we go the first three Mondays of the month and alternate teaching an English themed lesson. This is usually followed by a craft and some dancing. However, for these kids – it is a significant part of their week. This has helped us develop a strong bond with the children, maybe even more so than regular school students, who have loving families who they return home to each day after lessons. Despite the fact that many of the children in the Home do have living parents, they have left them to be taken care of by the state. Since this is the case, we decided that we would put together little Christmas goodie bags for them. Simple little things that would go a long way. We decided on four: stickers, a pot of glitter slime, a chocolate Binch biscuit, unarguably the best biscuit in Korea, and a small toy. My friend and I agreed to drop off the presents last Friday and made the Home guard aware of this. Along came Friday and we arrived in our usual make-shift classroom with the presents, our faces painted and wearing Christmas themed clothes. We weren’t immediately greeted by the kids which felt us feel sort of anxious as we were afraid that they had forgotten about our visit. Boy, were we wrong. Within two minutes, the room was filled with happy faces and excited laughter. Our next worry was how we were going to give out the gifts but that feeling soon subsided. They all silently assembled into a single line, patiently waiting for their unique goodie bag. Myself and my friend had never see them so well-behaved. Thankfully all the kids were super satisfied with their gifts and we were even able to take a few snaps with them afterwards. Not trying to sound too sappy here but the whole thing left me with the warm fuzzy feeling that people always talk about. Finally, it cemented my choice to return home next August to begin my studies towards becoming a qualified Social Worker.

        

                                       

                                                                                                                                     My little Home babies  -  Christmas 2018

For now, I hope everyone has a relaxing next few days and I’ll be updating once again in the New Year!