[Opinion] Memories of New Year’s Day

If Christmas is said to be a young people’s festival, and Chuseok, a day for celebrating a year’s harvest, is said to be an older people’s one, then New Year’s day could be said to be one for the children. This is simply because they can easily get a good sum of money “at once” if they are diligent enough to visit their relatives. The most popular guests for children on New Year’s Day are those who give them New Year’s money in envelopes. It is hard to be respected as elders if elders are stingy in giving New Year’s money, regardless of their social rank and wealth.

New Year’s day is also a day to share the coming year’s wishes and prayers, as well as rice-cake soups, a traditional food for the day to be shared with all relatives wherever they live. We realize the advantages of an extended family system, and the value of our blood relations again. But at the same time, there may be opposite cases. New Year’s day is a day of distress for those who have failed in business or entering university or who still remain as spinsters. So thoughtful elders are extraordinarily careful, even with their words. Accordingly, on New Year’s day, it is more important to care for those who are poor and in difficulty than those who are rich and successful.

As usual, more than 20 million Koreans headed for home this year. Korean people will go home for this holiday even if they have to do irrational things. For example, in the 60s and 70s, many Korean girls who worked in domestic service jobs or in factories used to go home carrying small gifts like parents’ underclothes and school supplies for younger brothers and sisters. Although many of them said to their families that they were working for good companies in Seoul, they had to dry their eyes in secret. There cannot be few among those who are going home this New Year’s day with their own stories and pain as well.

I reflect on why New Year’s day has become a traditional holiday that stimulates the homing instincts of Koreans and reminds them of family values. Above all, it is thanks to thoughtful elders, who have sacrificed to be centers for their families, and generous hostesses who do not mind incredible number of guests. It is really worrisome to think about how long such “memories of New Year’s day” can continue when many are reluctant to be such elders, and the number of hostesses who complain about holiday stress due to the amount of work, which is sort of a pathology of the times, is rapidly growing.

editorial writer O Myung-cheol

oscar@donga.com