[EDITORIALS]Promote Korea’s lunar holiday

This year’s Lunar New Year holiday has started. Over half of all Koreans are expected to leave for their hometowns to spend time together with their families. Along with the traditional paying of respects to forefathers, parents and older relatives, the Lunar New Year has added meaning as another beginning to the year, which has led to it to being one of Korea’s most important holidays.
Every race has its own customs. A distinctive fact about the Lunar New Year in Korea is that not only do we just travel to our hometowns, but we also seek to understand people from other generations and regions by participating in various traditional games together. Although they have lost some of their popularity over the years, activities such as yut, seesaw and flying kites are held throughout the country as part of regional culture festivals, which allow neighbors to form closer ties with each other.
It can be said that the strong nature of returning, dynamism and respect for tradition derives from the warm heartedness and cultural abundance of Korean families and communal society. This was also the driving force behind Korea’s accelerated economic and political development.
With the passing of time and the collapse of the extended family and introduction of various foreign cultures, it is sad but true that some people view the period as just another long holiday to enjoy. From the past, however, the Lunar New Year wasn’t a holiday limited to the specific date. In fact, it was the beginning of a long festive period that extended for two weeks by the lunar calendar. Overlapping with the break period for farmers, it was a time of relaxation for the year and enabled farmers to wish for a good harvest while happily preparing for the upcoming farming season.
The various meanings and the diverse traditional customs and cultural events that follow the Lunar New Year must be carried on in the digital era of the 21st century, especially when the importance of cultural content as is high as it is. We must research methods to connect the distinct cultural aspects of the holiday into a worldwide festival. Most festivals overseas also started off as a way to continue traditional festivities. From this, it is highly possible the roots of the recent Korean wave is in the Lunar New Year. Efforts to develop it as a world-class cultural event to give expatriates a hands-on experience is the culture should be considered.