Lunar New Year

Korea was founded upon Confucianism and Buddhist cultures.  Traditionally they used the Lunar calendar.  The Lunar New Year, also referred to as Chinese New Year, lands on a different date each year.  It's one of the two biggest holidays in the country, and per Buddhist traditions you honor your deceased elders by bowing and visiting grave sites.  Koreans will also usually wear their traditional clothing, hanbok, and prepare lots of food. This includes some of the favorite foods of the deceased as an offering.  However, Christianity is becoming a more common religion in modern day Korea, thus these traditions aren't as strong as they once were.

Seoul is usually bustling with people, but during this holiday it seems like a ghost town.  Most businesses close down, and many citizens visit family in their hometowns outside of Seoul.  I was fortunate enough to be invited to Seongeun's parents home in Incheon to have a home cooked traditional dinner.

Having tea and fruit with Seongeun's mom & dad

Don't get mad Seongeun, but I don't really remember the names of all the food I ate, and since I don't have a picture of the food it's not important at this time.  But I can tell you it was very good.  After dinner we had some red-ginseng tea and various fruits.  You can also see Seongeun's mom wore a traditional hanbok dress in honor of my visit.  Just call me Buddha.

Since this holiday doesn't mean much for me, I didn't partake in too many other holiday activities.  I enjoyed the four day weekend and caught up on some sleep.  I did meet Seongeun for a little shopping, and while at the mall there was a cool display of Legos to promote the new Lego movie.

It was also fun seeing this display because I just finished reading Brick by Brick, which is a book about the Lego company.  All-in-all it was a pretty quiet weekend for me, and just like that the four day weekend is over.