I missed it. Actually, I didn’t even know it existed until I read the article in The Korea Times. Well, I’ll know for next year.

Link: Korean American Day

It was the second year for the celebrations since the U.S. Senate designated Jan. 13 as Korean American Day in 2005 to commemorate the first Korean immigration to Hawaii in 1903 on that date.

It seems to me that they have a “special” day for everything now. Not that I begrudge anyone their special day, but they are getting hard to keep up with. Every time I turn around, someone is wearing a new ribbon or button. At first, I tried to keep up with as many as possible, but now I’ve really decided to keep track of the ones that are important to me instead.

If we lived in an area with a larger Korean population, I’m assuming that I would have known about it before the fact. The article mentions major celebrations in Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC. Truthfully, I’m not sure what I would have done if I knew about it. While Korea is interesting to me, I am not ethnically Korean American so there is a good chance that I wouldn’t have done anything anyway. I'm just having a mini-tantrum because I didn't know about it (or at least don't remember knowing about it).

A fashion show of traditional Korean costumes was held at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Some 90 outfits including traditional royal costumes and modern hanbok made by hanbok designer Lee Sun-hwa were presented.

For those of you who are interested, not only did the Smithsonian celebrate Korean American Day, but they’ve also started preparations for a big Korean section in the museum.

Link: Korean/Smithsonian

The foundation said Tuesday that the special section will open on May 23 and include close to 3,000 artifacts of Korean porcelain and items relating to Korean customs, family culture, the Korean writing system, traditional dress, and geography.

When my son is older, we will most likely make a trip to Washington DC. It’s too important to the country for us to miss it. It will be an added bonus that we will be able to see a Korean section in the Smithsonian. Of course, I remember the Smithsonian from my eighth grade trip. The place was absolutely huge. We might get lost before we find it.

According to the Korea Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution plans on celebrating the opening of the Korea section with a series of events from May 19 to June 18, including a hanbok fashion show, a performance by traditional musician Hwang Byungki, a folk performance of the traditional music-and-dance spectacle , a Korean food festival, and an instrumental performance...