Merry Christmas! (Sorry I’m a day late; I started writing this post yesterday, though!) This month has really just flown by, which is a bit saddening, seeing as it’s my favorite time of the year (at least, in some respects). My family and I are Christian, so it makes sense that we celebrate Christmas, but many who are not religious at all still observe the holiday for one reason or another. In Korea, quite a few people “celebrate” Christmas, but not necessarily in the way that many of us in the western world do.
In the U.S., Christmas is largely viewed as being a family oriented holiday; on Christmas Eve, you spend time at home doing family traditions, such as singing Christmas carols or reading the Christmas story. On Christmas Day, you open gifts and have a nice meal with your family. In Korea, however, Christmas has a different meaning. For many people, it has become another excuse to give and receive gifts, and it has somehow become a holiday for couples, similar to Valentine’s Day or the like. The streets are usually packed with people on Christmas Eve, treating it as a date night or just a good time to hang out with friends.
Over the years, Christmas has gradually become a more widely observed holiday in Korea, though, for both the religious and the not so religious. There are certain traditional Christmas foods in the west that are hard to find in Korea (e.g. turkey, cranberry sauce, egg nog), and they do not have the same surplus of Christmas decorations over there, either, but you can find some stuff.While it might not pervade society in the way that it does in the west, according to Eat Your Kimchi, the Christmas spirit has been growing every year in Korea.
For those residing in Korea who celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, finding a church or cathedral is actually not that difficult. Despite its background, which relies heavily on Confucianism, Korea has a large Christian population. Myeongdong Catholic Cathedral of the Seoul Archdiocese (명동주교좌성당) holds a Christmas mass every year. It also has English mass every week.
The Korea Project 