Dong-ji/Christmas

Friday was a special day at work for two reasons. First of all, December 22nd was the winter solstice, therefore marking the world's movement into a new period of the solar calendar. In Korea, this day is known as Dong-ji and is, I gather, celebrated in different ways by different people. Most of the rites surrounding Dong-ji involve battling evil spirits. Mr. Park's wife prepared the traditional dish of red bean and rice soup for the teachers at Elite (the name of which I've unfortunately forgotten), which is meant to help expel ghosts. I found it interesting that when I mentioned to my students that it was Dong-ji, only about half of them knew what I was talking about. The others had to have it explained to them by their fellow students. It makes me wonder whether the observance of this day will not be as important to the younger generation.

It was also the last day of classes before the Christmas holiday on Monday, and so I baked some Christmas cookies (many thanks to my mother for her recipe) for my best students. The conditions were not ideal for baking cookies (baking in general is more difficult in Korea because the necessary equipment, and ingredients, are hard to find), but I think they turned out well in the end. The younger students spent the day making Christmas cards, and everyone got to have some dag (rice-cake with red bean filling), which was provided by Mr. Park. Not surprisingly, Christmas isn't as big of a holiday here as it is back home. As I understand it, children may get one present from their parents to mark the occasion. For high school and university age students, it is almost like a second Valentine's Day as young couples exchange gifts. The young students seemed very excited about Christmas, but the older ones seemed decidedly non-plussed. They are much more excited about Solnar, the "Chinese" New Year's celebration in February when their relatives give them money. Without further adieu, here are some of my favorite pictures from the day: