Parents' Day in Korea

Illustration by s-girl, on deviantart.com

It’s May 8th, and you might just know what that means to South Korea: Parents’ Day! Perhaps you know the tale of Shim Chung, a popular Korean folk tale about a young woman who sacrificed her life to restore her father’s eyesight. Now that’s filial piety!

In Korea, this day was originally just for mothers, but it was changed to Parents’ Day as an attempt to help fathers feel less alienated during the traditional Korean holiday. On this day, children will give their parents gifts, typically accompanied by red carnations or roses. One tradition, according to the Korean Way, is for children to honor a deceased parent with a white carnation rather than a red one. Another site claims that Parents’ Day presents have been modernized. Now, cosmetic treatments such as botox injections and hair transplants are gifted.

So here's a fond word from our Getting Past the White Tiger expats to their families back home:

Ashley's Family

This is my parents and I after my university graduation ceremony. It is the only picture in existence of all of them in one place

Living so far away from home is hard. Skype malfunctions make everything that much harder. I am eternally grateful for my wonderful highly non-traditional family. I have one mother and three fathers, "How?!" you might ask? Well, let's just say it's complicated. I am so thankful for my non-traditional family, the qualities of strength, adaptability and  cultural awareness that they gave me proved vital to succeeding and thriving in South Korea.

On top of all the support my mother visited me here last October.She let me drag her around Korea doing cheesy things like the typical Korean style photo booth (pictured left), let me parade her around my friends & students, and got up at 4am during a Temple Stay to do prostrations. It was wonderful to show her my life here and I appricate her making the effort to come out.

My dads are going to try and come out to visit me in August and I'm looking for to have similar but of course a very different experience with them. <3

Me: "Dad, meet my co-workers."
Dad: "Son, I'm moving here."

Leif's Parents

My dad visited me in Korea during the Chuseok holiday last year. I took him to Seoul, where we visited Gyeongbukgung (South Korea's most celebrated royal palace) and Insadong, a district filled with tea shops, artisan stalls and historic cultural assets. We also visited the biologically and geologically diverse Jeju Island for his birthday. We went to a traditional folk village on the island, ate many kinds of oranges, and feasted on black pig samgyeopsal.

My parents
taken in Sydney, British Columbia

My mom has been a professional writer and editor for more than twenty-five years. She has always been an important creative influence on me, and she did everything she could to raise me despite having  limited means. My stepdad didn't have much difficulty fitting into the family. He taught me how to play blues guitar, record music, ride a skateboard, change the oil on a Ford F-250 and use an A-frame and a winch to lift an arc welder out of the back of a truck. 

Parents make life possible for you. Things aren't always perfect, but your folks provide your first view of the world. We only understand when we love, and our first way to understand the world is to love them. 

<3, Leif