Miscellaneous 'Special Days' in May
As if Children's Day, Parents' Day, and Teacher's Day weren't enough, there are plenty of other holidays taking place in Korea this month. Buddha's birthday (佛誕) was a major event that fell on May 2 this year, and in Korea this was marked by the appearance of lanterns at temples across the country, as well as a few different Lotus Lantern Festivals.
Hoamsa (호암사) on Dobongsan (도봉산)
My entry from the end of last week also made a brief reference to Married Couple's Day, which I learned a little more about during our Korean class on Friday. This particular holiday - 부부의 날 in Korean - was placed in May to coincide with the other family-oriented events that take place near the start of the month. The reason for the particular date - the 21st - was that it was viewed as the moment when two individuals become one family. A quick online search brings up this site and information that a commemorative event was first proposed back in 2003 and passed by the National Assembly with the sentiments "5월에 둘(2)이 하나(1)가 된다".
And for those interested, here's a riddle from my Korean textbook that includes 부부 (couple) as one of the choices.
다른 하나는 무엇일까요? * Which one is different from the others?
1. 젓가락 2. 귀고리 3. 구두 4. 양말 5. 반지 6. 부부 7. 장갑
One of the other recent 'holidays' - if it can be called that - was Rose Day from 14 May. Resulting from a bit of shrewd marketing, the fourteenth of every month in Korea is related to couples or people who would prefer to be in a relationship. It starts on 14 February with Valentine's Day and women giving chocolate to the man they like, although I have also heard that this has expanded into an expectation in some companies that female employees will buy chocolate for all their male coworkers. Next up is White Day on 14 April when men are expected to return the favor by buying sweets for their special someone.
The following month sees the arrival of Black Day on 14 April, where those who are still single eat Jjajangmyeong (짜장면; a type of black sauce noodle) in the hope of having better luck in the next year. After that the days diminish considerably in popularity, with the rest of the list available at the bottom of this KBS Global page. Seems 2 May was also promoted as 'Cucumber Day' by the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation due to the fact that 5/2 sounds the same as 오이, the Korean word for cucumber. Guess I missed the chance to celebrate that one. There are two other, semi-important cultural holidays that take place this month, but they probably deserve their own entries.