If you can read the title of this entry, congratulations! You can understand Korean! (or at least Konglish). In other words...Merry Christmas! And Happy New Year for that matter! So this update is a long time coming, but here are some details about my second winter holidays in Korea.
Christmas was wonderful and also quite busy this year in Korea. It feels like it came and went so fast this year! Culturally, Christmas is very different in Korea than in the U.S. of course. You don’t have the same feeling of the “Christmas season” with media attention, big family gatherings, and multitudes of parties. As I have told some people, Christmas is another “cake holiday” in Korea. There are bakeries on every corner of Seoul, maybe because nobody actually bakes themselves, and for holidays they have huge piles of boxed cakes sitting outside of them, waiting to be purchased. For a day or two before a holiday, especially Christmas, nearly every Korean you see will be carrying at least one of these boxed cakes. Cakes in general are small, really elaborately decorated, and not cheap! I have also told some that it is a “Couples holiday” too. Being part of a couple is very important in Korea (thus the matching couple outfits), and on Christmas, couples are out in full force (of course, donning cute identical sweaters and jackets and scarves). It’s also common to hear statements like “You should make a boyfriend for Christmas” (haha, someone actually said this to a friend of mine), or “Oh no! I’m still single on Christmas.” Finally, Christmas is a shopping holiday, like in the U.S. but in a different way. People go out shopping on Christmas Day, because they have the day off of work, but non-Christian families don’t celebrate together, so they are more likely to go out with friends and hit the busy shopping districts. Also, it is very, very popular to eat out at Outback Steakhouse on Christmas! Every one I saw was just packed.
My own Christmas was wonderful! It kicked off a couple weeks before Christmas with a concert and worship service for foreign workers (mostly from the Philippines, but about 15 nations were represented there), where I performed with choir and body worship. Then the next Saturday was the Christmas Gala, which had a lot of awesome dance and musical performances, culminating in a 2 hour play written by an extremely talented writer at my church. It was brilliant, both touching and hilarious! I'll post some videos of my performances, so you can check them out if you’d like.
Christmas Eve there was a special service at my church, after which I did homeless outreach at a busy Station in the middle of Seoul. It was quite eye-opening how many homeless men and women were lined up in just this one place, knowing to expect churches to be there handing out food, blankets, and clothes. I couldn’t speak to them, other than “Merry Christmas” but we prayed for them and served food as well as gloves and hat sets. Afterward, I headed to my friend Vanessa’s to stay over night with her and Laina. We shared a quiet Christmas morning, and I cooked our family’s favorite “Victorian French Toast” - yummy!
My choir sang again at the International English service on Christmas Day for all the English ministries in Seoul together. After this I went to dinner at Heather and Alex’s again (same as Thanksgiving), and Heather even made almost everything meatless! Some wonderful pastas, and of course Christmas cake! haha
One highlight was the Nintendo Wii Fit they had just gotten. We all had fun trying out the games and testing our “real physical age”, though I didn’t actually do that one, not wanting to reveal my elderly physique to everyone ;) We also played an interesting card game that resulted in some cruel punishments, included taping up faces, apparently inspired by Jim Carrey from his latest movie. You’ll see what I mean if you look at my pictures. It was an ... interesting and different side to these folks, but quite funny as well!
So, Christmas came & went as such. It was wonderful and I was once again so grateful for my family away from family. The only down-side was getting the flu the day after Christmas, staying in bed for 3 days bored out of my mind and sick as a dog. Luckily, I was almost better by New Year's, other than a hacking cough.
Well, I hope that your holidays were all filled with family, friends, and love and unity. I pray that your New Year will bring many wonderful blessings!
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