In Korea, May 5th is Children’s Day (a national holiday). I think every country should have a children’s day. In South Korea, it is day for children to spend with their parents and often involves family outings. This particular holiday began in 1923.

Here is a day that can be just for the children. It’s a day to show the children how important they are to the world. Sometimes, as parents, I think we get so tied up in making things come together – working to save for their college or the shoes that they need for soccer lessons, etc… that we forget to tell them... more

Trees are important in my family so I found this holiday to be particularly interesting. My father was a forestry major in college so I can remember many a long walk where he pointed out different types of trees to me and told me what they were good for. Unfortunately, none of the tree names stuck – but the respect for trees did stick.

In the 1950s, the Korean War was not kind to the environment. Deforestation and the general destructions of war, resulted in the loss of a massive quantity of trees. So, in order to make things right, the Korean government made April... more

March 1st is a day to celebrate Korean independence. It was this day in 1919 that several members of an underground movement read the Korean Declaration in Seoul. They were protesting the Japanese occupation.

If you’re interested, it really is a fascinating topic. My first reaction was to run to the library and take out as many books as I could find on the subject. You can thank my husband for bringing me down to earth and reminding me that this is a blog. The part of me that majored in history and political science wanted to write about the historical impact of the event and how it helped develop the modern Korean political structure. My husband, always the logical part of the... more