西洋오랑캐

The first day of March is a national holiday in Korea. Known simply as 3-1절 (3-1 Holiday), the holiday is a day of rememberence for an event that took place in 1919. On that day a group of Koreans gathered in Pagoda Park to protest Japanese rule and demand their independence, and independence which was achieved some 26 years later in 1945.

At present, Koreans for the most part celebrate this holiday the same way the celebrate most holidays, meaning they don’t really do anything special. I for my part had kept with this tradition until a chance encounter with an announcement while riding an exercise bike changed my 삼일절 plans for the year of 2006.

The wife and I belong to a gym located in our apartment complex. The gym is not that large, but it has running machines, exercise bikes, and more weight equipment than we have at home, and the price is decent since we enrolled in the husband and wife membership plan. So each and every day (or at least four times a week) we head over to the gym to exercise for an hour or two. About a week ago, while we were riding the stationary bikes, I was rocking out with some jams on my ipod (I believe it was Archers of Loaf or Hot Rod Circuit) and Jinhui was reading the newspaper.

She tapped my shoulder as she often does while reading the newspaper. Usually it is to show me some random 漢字 and attempt to stump me, sometimes it’s to show me a bizarre news story (usually about a celebrity or idiots in America), and sometimes it’s just to do Korean sign language for, “I love you.” This time it was none of the above. What she showed me was an advertisement for some memorial walk to comemorate the March 1st Movement. I quickly scanned the ad.

“3.1 kilometer walk, snacks and beverages provided, free jacket…call 02-XXX-XXXX or send and e-mail to insertemail@dress.here”

“Free jacket?! Let’s do it!”

So we called them up and made reservations for jackets for four. The big day arrived, and after a morning spent making 김밥 and 유부초밥, the wife, her sister, her sister’s boyfriend, and I headed off to 남산 for a 3.1 kilometer walk. We arrived at the meeting point to find that we were the only people under the age of 50 in attendance. I also learned (though the others in my party already knew) that this particular walk was sponsored by (or supporting) an organization against Kim Jong-Il and his way of doing business.

So we hiked up the mountain among aged Korean marines (who still looked tough as hell), middle aged women with signs depicting cartoon Kim Jong-Il getting crushed with hammers, and old men and women who have hometowns and family members living north of the boarder. The hike itself was a pretty easy affair, though highly enjoyable. As we power-walked up the mountain, he conversed about random nonsense such as cartoons of the 1980s.

After 30 or 40 minutes we arrived at the final destination. We were given some bread and milk and took a seat as some men delivered some speeches and the crowd partook in 만세운동 (萬世運動), which basically means everyone in attendance yelled, “만세!” (a phrase similar to “Hooray!”) three times and threw their arms in the air (they did not “wave ‘em like they just don’t care” however). During the speeches we all proceeded to chow down upon or 김밥, and then it was time to go.

After our march, my sister-in-law and her boyfriend took us to a jewlery shop in order for 진희 and I to get some wedding rings made. Since both her sister and her sister’s boyfriend are jewlers we were able to get rings made for extremely low prices. Which is decent, since I am quickly learning that wedding ceremonies are fairly costly affairs, so anywhere we can save some cash works for me. What’s more, the rings we are getting are handmade, so not only are they cheaper, but they are of a higher quality.

Following the designing of our rings, we traveled to a department store to get 진희’s father a birthday gift and I encountered a Korean celebrity, but he was shopping, with his wife and kid, and looked extremely stoned, so I didn’t bother him. Instead, I stared in awe at the fashion sense (or lack there of) of the Japanese tourists that were hanging around.

With a brithday present purchased, we headed back home to close out our 삼일절 celebrations. 만세!

Check out random other photos from the day here.