We started the day at Erma's parents' home, where I participated in two New Year's day rituals: bowing to one's elders and eating tteok 떡 (glutinous rice cakes).
We're now back in Seoul, and preparing for our return home to America.
Speaking of holidays, it was rather extraordinary how Christmas-y it was both here in Seoul and in Qingdao in the run-up to December 25. According to Wikipedia, 10% of Koreans are Catholics and 18% are Protestants. That's a sizable minority, so one would expect Christmas to be celebrated here. What was surprising to me was the degree to which a commercialized secular Christmas has permeated the culture. As in America, for several weeks most stores and restaurants played Christmas music (the usual familiar melodies and English lyrics) and decorated with wreaths, trees, lights, and the like. Employees wore Santa hats. Stores advertised Christmas gifts heavily, and a few days before the holiday itself, many of them set up little stands on the sidewalks displaying their gifts sets.
It was even more surprising to see similar decorations in Qingdao, since a much smaller percentage of the population is Christian. As seems so typical in China, the Christmas stuff was overdone to the point of tackiness. Our hotel lobby was festooned with Santa statues and two-dimensional cardboard images, as well as trees and wreaths. Erma posed with this statue outside Meida'er 美达尔, a restaurant specializing in grilled skewered kabobs.
In the Qingdao airport, an automated sax-playing Santa with disquietingly flexible hips wriggled tirelessly in front of the duty-free store.What does it all mean? I guess it shows that the trappings of Christmas--the presents, the lights, the colors, and so on--are just irresistible to most people. And the opportunity to profit off the holiday is irresistible to retailers.
After our return from China, we heard an NPR report over the internet on Christmas in Iraq. The reporter was asked by the Stateside anchor-person how majority Iraqi Muslims were reacting to the celebrations by American troops and Iraqi Christians. "Well," she said, "they really like the lights, just like everybody else."
So: Where in the world does Christmas still pass unnoted and unnoticed? Israel. Arabia, I suppose. Perhaps not for long!
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