Saturday, April 27, 2019

May Culture Update: Holidays

Just a reminder as Korea has some holidays coming up...

In South Korea, May 1st is known simply as "Workers' Day". It is not a public holiday, but a paid holiday for workers by the Designation of Workers' Day Act.

A National Holiday, Children's Day falls on a Sunday in 2019, the following Monday, May 6 will be celebrated as the holiday. Workers get a day off work and children get a day off school. 

Families make an extra effort to do something special on Children’s Day. Parents will often take their children somewhere special and treat them to snacks or ice cream. One of the theme parks, zoos, and historic sites are popular places for Koreans to take their children, too.


This year Buddha's Birthday, a National Holiday, falls on Sunday, May 12. Buddha’s Birthday is not only an important and auspicious day for the nation’s practicing Buddhists (a religious group that makes up approximately one-fifth of South Korea’s population), but it is also a public holiday that is widely celebrated across the country. 

Festivities surround the holiday and Buddhist temples are transformed into kaleidoscopes of color--vibrantly colored, lotus-shaped lanterns hung throughout. 


Buddha's Birthday

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