Official Korean National Holidays in 2010

Since the New Year is upon us I thought that I would share the holidays and dates for 2010!

Offices and banks are closed on national holidays, and on some 'special days'. However, amusement parks, department stores museums, palaces, and most restaurants are generally open. That said, almost everything closes on certain holidays such as New Year's Day, January 1st.

New Year’s Day - Friday, January 1, 2010
The first day of the New Year is recognized and celebrated in Korea. Although restaurants may be open, stores, palaces and museums generally are not.

Seolla - Lunar New Year - Saturday - Monday, February 13 - 15, 2010
Lunar New Year’s Day (Seollal) is one of the most important traditional events of the year. Most businesses are closed, and many people take several days off to visit their hometowns to be with family. Given that the holiday is only basicallly a long weekend, there will likely be less travelling abroad than in recent years.

Independence Movement Day - Monday March 1, 2010
This day commemorates the Declaration of Independence proclaimed on March 1, 1919, while under Japanese colonization. A reading of the declaration takes place in a special ceremony at Tapgol Park in Seoul, where the document was first read to the public.

Labor Day - Saturday, May 1, 2010
Although Labor Day is not a national holiday, banks and business establishments are closed, and many people take the day off.

Children’s Day - Wednesday, May 5, 2010
On this day, parents dress up their little ones and take them to children’s parks, amusement parks, zoos, or to the cinema for a full day of fun and games.

Parents’ Day - Saturday, May 8, 2010
Sons and daughters show their love and respect for their parents on this day. Parents’ Day is no longer a national holiday. Banks and shops are open for business.

Buddha’s Birthday - Friday, May 21, 2010
The 8th day of the 4th lunar month. Elaborate, solemn rituals are held at many Buddhist temples across the country and lanterns are hung in the temple courtyards. The Sunday before Buddha’s birthday these lanterns are lit and carried in parades in the evening.

Memorial Day -Sunday, June 6, 2010
Memorial Day is set aside to honor the soldiers and civilians who have given their lives for their country. The largest ceremony is held at the National Cemetery in Seoul.

Constitution Day - Saturday, July 17, 2010
Commemorates the proclamation of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea that was made on July 17, 1948. This is not a national holiday.

Liberation Day -Sunday, August 15, 2010
This day commemorates Japanese acceptance of the Allies’ terms of surrender and the resulting liberation of Korea in 1945.

Chuseok -Tuesday -Thursday, September 21 - 23, 2010
Chuseok is one of the year’s most important traditional holidays. It is celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. Chuseok is often referred to as Korean Thanksgiving Day. It’s a celebration of the harvest and thanksgiving for the bounty of the earth. Family members come from all over the country to visit their ancestral homes, although a growing minority are taking advantage of the time to travel.

National Foundation Day -Sunday, October 3, 2010
This day commemorates the founding of the Korean nation in 2333 B.C. by the legendary god-king Dangun. A simple ceremony is held at an altar on top of Mt. Manisan, Ganghwado province. The altar is said to have been erected by Dangun to offer thanks to his father and grandfather in heaven.

Hangeul Day - Saturday, October 9, 2010
Hangeul Day, otherwise referred to as Hangeul Proclamation Day or Korean Alphabet Day, is a commemoration held to remember the creation of Hangeul, the country’s native alphabet as proclaimed by the publication of Hunmin Jeongeum on this day in 1446. This is no longer a national holiday.

Christmas -Saturday December 25, 2009
Christmas is observed as a national holiday in Korea.


This was taken from: http://www.korea4expats.com/events-in-korea-Official-Korean-National-Holidays-in-2010-2538.html

Christmas and More

Well it is now a few days after Christmas and while it was not like home and we missed everyone soo much we have kept busy and made some good memories. We started out Christmas vacation on Christmas Eve. We decided to go skating with some friends at Gwangwhamun plaza. It is a new complex with 3 rinks. It cost us 1000 won (around a dollar) to skate for an hour and included the skate rental. We had a nice day and it was nice to get on the ice again, it has been a while since we have been skating.

On Christmas morning, which was Christmas Eve at home we woke up early to attend the Christmas service at Calvin which was very nice and made us feel a little closer to everyone. Here are some pictures of us "at church", yes it was the first time I went to Christmas Eve service with pajama pants on!

Last Hymn with Candles, so beautiful!

After church we opened our Christmas package from Don's parents. We had received it a few days before and were excited to have something to open on Christmas morning. Look at all the goodies!! I had also asked Don's parents to pick up an iPod for Don for Christmas and to send it to us, since I had looked here and they are around $100 more. We also got some home made peanut butter balls!!! Yummmmm!

Here is my Christmas gift, I picked it out while shopping in Itaewan a few days before Christmas, very pretty!

Don's Dad made sure to send us a smoke/CO2 detector since fire safety doesn't seem to be of high concern here. None of the apartments in our building have detectors and we all have gas stoves and our heating is gas too.

Later in the day Don and I set off with a couple other friends to the U.S. army base to pick up the Christmas meals that we had ordered, just like we had on Thanksgiving. This time we ordered one turkey and one bone in ham. It was all delicious once again. We had about 20 people this time for dinner and therefore could not hold it in an apartment as small as all of ours, so a couple of the other teachers spoke to the owner of a bar that a lot of the teachers frequent and arranged for him to open up early so that we could have our meal there. It was great! We call the bar "A" bar but it is actually called Adventure Western Bar, but since the sign has a huge A we have re-named it.

On Christmas evening (Christmas morning at home) we were able to skype gift openings with both of our families, I didn't think to take pictures with Dad, Susan and Danny, but we took one with Don's family. Don's grandma was even there!

To our surprise we had snow for Christmas!! It snowed a bit on Christmas afternoon and has snowed more since and has actually stayed on the ground, quite a surprise since everyone has told us that snow almost never stays here.

Notice the organization of the power lines and phone lines, this isn't even close to the worse that we have seen either.

We have had some good meals since Christmas too. While shopping the other day we found snow crab on sale and had a great meal that night.

Yesterday, December 27th, was one of the new teachers' (Stephen) birthday and we had a potluck dinner party. It was lots of fun and we went bowling after, then to an arcade. Check out the picture of the cake, this is actually the least fancy cake that Brian could find, the cakes here are crazy elaborate, I don't even know how you would go about eating some of them.

Yes this is a massive bottle of Soju, Happy birthday Stephen!

Some of the arcade games, notice the one where you have to hit the flasher on the Subway, hilarious!