Christmas Around the World: South Korea
Day 6 led us to…
South Korea!
When making the list of countries I wanted to learn about this Christmas season, it did not occur to me that some countries do not celebrate Christmas. However, Christmas in South Korea has become more widely celebrated and both Christians and non-Christians partake. Christianity did not enter South Korea until the 17th century, so traditions there do not have long roots.
Being Monday, and being that information on Christmas in South Korea is not heavily available, our Christmas study today was pretty short. South Korea’s commercialization of Christmas is similar to that in America- new Christmas pop songs come on the radio in November, they watch cheesy Christmas movies, and department stores put up large festive displays. They also love lights, and decorate with them all over! Here are a few more tidbits about Christmas in South Korea…
Fun Facts
- Christmas in South Korea is an official public holiday so people do not have to work or go to school.
- About 25-30% of South Korea’s population is Christian. Going to church on Christmas is becoming more popular, even among non-Christians.
- Some people do have Christmas trees, but most are artificial. Real Christmas trees are very pricey.
- The most popular gift to give is money!
- Christmas cake is the most common type of holiday food.
- Santa is called Grandfather Santa, but is not always a man; sometimes Santa is female and called Grandmother Santa. They also do not always wear red- sometimes they wear blue!
What We Did
We watched a few short videos on YouTube:
Why Christmas, of course.
The girls learned how to write Merry Christmas in South Korean calligraphy!
Our elf, Elfen, brought us Asian candies today to introduce this country in our unit study. Only thing is, Elfen brought candies made in Japan. Oh well. The kids still thought they were delicious!
Finally, we made our country posters. I can’t wait to bind them and look back on them for years to come.
