Daeboreum

On Monday, I had a delightful lunch with Kyunghan (one of my co-teachers) and her boyfriend, Seong-phil (pictured below).


They are so sweet... and so much fun to hang out with! We had a delightful time together. =)


We had a TON of food. I tried samgaetang (soup with rice inside of a chicken) for the first time. It was pretty good - although I wasn't quite sure how to eat it. =)


After lunch, we went to the Namsangol Hanok Village for the Daeboreum celebration. It's only ONE subway stop away from me... and I have been completely unaware this whole time!


Daeboreum is traditionally celebrated each year 15 days after the lunar new year; it's the celebration of the first (and biggest) full moon of the year. People traditionally pray to the moon. I'm not sure how much people actually believe this now... Seong-phil and Kyunghan are Christians, so they don't pray to the moon. I was really thankful that they shared this tradition with me, though. It was quite educational and I really enjoyed learning about some old Korean traditions.


This is the wishing tree. All of those bright colors are people's wishes. In the evening, they burn the tree and then the ashes are used as fertilizer for good crops (according to tradition).


At the village that we visited, they had lots of traditional Korean games. Here, Kyunghan is trying to keep this metal rim off the ground. It was actually quite a challenging task!


An old-school traditional Korean home (for quite wealthy people). Seong-phil was incredibly knowledgeable about the history of these buildings. I think my Dad would have enjoyed hearing about it... since he's a builder and all. =)


Making popcorn the old-fashioned way!


Reminded me of my Grandpa and Papu... we used to eat popcorn together all the time! =)

Traditional Korean dancers and musicians. I have grown to appreciate and enjoy these performances.


I went back to the village later on that night with some friends after dinner. We got to see them light the tree on fire... it was a pretty intense fire... and ashes were flying everywhere. It was another one of those things that we see here in Korea that just would probably never be done in the States. lol.