The Holidays in Korea

There’s not really much to note about a Korean Christmas. Stores are still open and many people are still working. It’s treated more like our Halloween in the US. You’ll certainly see decorations up and hear carols in the air but families don’t gather and presents aren’t really exchanged. Traveling home for Koreans is much more done over lunar new year. My family celebrated in the normal way, by wearing an equal number of red and green shirts.

New Years however was a different story. Even though by this time most of us had gotten sick, we still partied it up in downtown Seoul. By about 10PM the air was thick with smoke from the countless bottle rockets being shot into the air. Hordes of policemen stood guard (and took pictures themselves) along the main avenue

There were several traditional Korean music troupes that danced through the streets. You can see one of them at the beginning of this video clip taken about an hour before midnight:

As midnight rolled nearer we packed into the masses surrounding the Boshingak Bell Pavilion. The bell was in daily use during the Choson dynasty(1392-1910) when it was rung at the opening and closing of the city gates. Now however, it is only rung every New Years but they ring it 33 lucky times. The rest of the fam went home and the bros stuck around for this great shot.

You can see the Bell Pavilion in the background.

At midnight the bell tolled and bottle rockets flew, ash rained down like grey snow and you couldn’t even open your eyes due to the smoke, ash, and holiday cheer. Check it out, you can open your eyes though: