This time the holiday was in conjunction of Gaecheonjeol; Korea National Foundation Day. Since we were warned about the Typhoon Mitag, we didn't plan to go anywhere further on that day, but we did end up at City Seven mall complex and spent quite a fulfilling day at Daiso. By the way, there's a history behind this foundation day. At first, I thought the holiday was about Korea gaining its independence of some sort, but beats me! By the way, I found this cool website explaining about the National Foundation Day. Read up! 👇🏻😬😬
History of National Foundation Day in Korea
The Korean creation myth goes back to the beginnings of the 고조선 (Gojoseon) period, before the three kingdoms era of Korea. Gojoseon literally means ‘old Joseon’ because this period of Korean history came long before the Joseon dynasty. Legend has it, the God-king 단군 (Dangun) founded the first Korean kingdom in 2333 B.C.
Dangun, Grandson of Heaven and Son of the Bear
Dangun is known as ‘the grandson of heaven’ or ‘the son of a bear’. Yes, an actual bear!
The story goes that 환웅 (Hwanung), the son of the Lord of Heaven, wished to live on earth. So his dad, 환인 (Hwanin), allowed him and three-thousand of his followers to build a city on 백두산 (Baekdu Mountain).
Historians regard Baekdu Mountain as the birthplace of Korea. It straddles the North Korea-China border and is actually a caldera, a volcanic mountain with a lake at its summit.
It was here that Dangun’s father, Hwanung, allegedly descended from heaven, giving the lake its moniker ‘heavenly lake’. This mountain became the center of the Gojoseon kingdom which, at its height, stretched across the Korean peninsula and deep into Manchuria.
The word 개천 (Gaecheon), which makes up the holiday’s Korean name 개천절 (Gaecheonjeol), means ‘opening of heaven’, and refers to how Hwanin opened heaven to allow his son to descend to Baekdu Mountain.
While on the mountain, Hwanung met a bear and a tiger, both of whom asked him to make them human. To test their worthiness, Hwanung tasked them with spending one hundred days living in a cave with only garlic and mugwort to eat.
The tiger completely failed the challenge and gave up after twenty days. The bear however, managed to complete the challenge. Thus the bear became a human woman, eventually marrying Hwanung and giving birth to a child. This son, Dangun, went on to found the first Korean kingdom.
Although full of supernatural elements, historians think the legend of Dangun might be based on actual events. The tiger and the bear both representing different tribes that were vying for Dangun’s favor.
When is National Foundation Day in Korea celebrated?
National Foundation Day celebrates this first Korean kingdom founded by Dangun. The holiday was originally on the third day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar, and so was on a different date each year (just like Chuseok).
After 1949, it was turned into a yearly national holiday. So National Foundation Day is now celebrated on October 3rd every year in Korea.
How to spend the holiday
Like many holidays around the world, National Foundation Day is celebrated with huge displays of fireworks throughout the country. In Seoul, it takes place in Yeouido Han River Park and is very popular.
Upon coming to Korea, I am being more conscious and aware of the worthy and unique arts and culture of my hometown; Kelantan. So, it is a great waste if I didn't debut any of them at Sahwa Elementary school. After hearing that our mentor is looking for a special Malaysia performance for her class exhibition, without any hesitation, both of us suggested Dikir Barat to be the highlight of the day besides joge t and Wayang Kulit performance. At first it seemed very farfetched and ambitious, but after hearing the kids singing the Ewa Bule verses, my heart felt very touched and then, I knew, we've made the right decision. Since I am not an expert, we refer to this dikir barat/choir performace of Ewa Bule by the UK kids. We showed the kids their performance and they were hesitant about it at first but as they rehearsed through the song, they finally gained some confidence. To be fair, we're still at the initial phase of the practice, yet we've got limited time to p...
Disclaimer: This post is very random. You've been warned 😆😆😆 Today is such a lovely day. It has been for two consecutive days that we were greeted, "Selamat pagi, Apa khabar?" by the principal on our way to school. He is such a lovely man. He even sweeps the school compound, especially the part where the ginkgo biloba fruits (they stink by the way😓😓) fell of its trees. The kids started to open up to us. Most of them still greeted us as "Hello/Hi Malaysia" while some of them called us with our names (Dean/Zaki). Speaking of being greeted by the kids, yesterday, Zaki and I got the permission to go out during lunch to settle about our online banking (which is verrrrrry complicated unlike our online/internet banking), the Grade5/6 pupils waved goodbye to us while saying "You're handsome". As I responded, "Oh, thank you. You're handsome too". He was sooooo excited and happy to hear that while his friends asked him what did...
Since today we weren't that busy at all, we decided to stay around during lunch and asked some of the kids to write any messages to us or to Malaysia on a piece of Mahjong paper. As usual, since there were two of us and there are a number of school's lobby, so we places ourselves at the 3rd and the 4th floor. At first the kids were a bit shy to do it, but once I told them that we're leaving tomorrow, they immediately grabbed the marker pens and started to write something. Some even asked if they could write in Hangeul, so I told them that it's fine. You can expect now that I can't read any of the messages 🤣 😭 😭 But it's okay, at least I could see their eagerness of giving us messages to remember them by. And as for the slippers, I just found out a few weeks ago that the letters on the slippers means, "Sahwa Elementary School". 😅 😅 See, you could see that my progress is rather slow, Just when I'm about to get the hang of it, It's a...
Today, when we entered the first class of our last First Graders, I literally had a heart attack! The kids had sooooo much sugar in their system 😭 😭 And I thought that it would be just the same with the other two classes. Luckily things only got better and better. The second class was great but the third class for the day was even better. Just like they said, "End it with a bang!" We, literally felt like an idol signing up authographs for the kids. It all started with one girl. She came and asked for my autograph at first, but I didn't understand it. And then, he went to my partner and only then I understood her 😅 😅 😅 And the dominos chain reaction started there and then 🤣 🤣 🤣 # komtep2019
3 months had flown by so quickly. I felt like it was only last week that I was posted here. It's finally time to leave and go back to where I belong. Thank you Sahwa Elementary for being nice to me. And thank you MOE, KME, UNESCO and APCEIU for this once in a lifetime opportunity. No doubt that I'll miss my 89 days here. There are so much that I didn't get to do but it is nothing compared to what I've gained. Once again, from the bottom of my heart, 고맙습니다 # komtep2019
Seeing the kids playing Pokemon Go kinda made me miss being a kid. And yes, I hate the feelings of leaving too. Especially when I know there's no coming back 😭 😭 😭 😭
"가위 바위 보"! (가위 = scissors, 바위 = rock, 보 = paper) Growing up, I often used "Lat Ta Li Lat" instead of rock, paper, scissors. The Koreans however, have their own similar version of rock, paper, scissors commonly known as 가위 바위 보 or KAI BAI BO (pronounced as KAWI BAWI PO). The game is very simple. The players would turn their hands into a ball while chanting: "Kai, bai, bo!". Then, they'd put their hands out at exactly the same time in one of three signs: Kai (scissors), Bai (rock), Bo (paper). To choose "scissors", you put out the thumb and pointer finger imitating scissors. You make a fist for "rock". You put out a flat hand horizontal to the ground for "paper". So basically, - Rock (bai) beats Scissors (kai) - Scissors (kai) beats Paper (bo) - Paper (bo) beats Rock (bai) If both kids put out their hand as the same object, they have to replay the round. Whoever wins 2 out of 3 rounds wins. I remembe...
Today was our second last day at school. So, in the morning, as I walked passed by the Sixth Graders classes, I asked them to write messages to us or Malaysia in general. And then, around 12-ish, one of the boy, who was quiet close to me gave me his card and left. Then, he came back, but with a pair of scissors this time. And then he gave me the scissors, with my name written on it (misspelled). I thought of why he gave me such present and then he said, "Think of my name when you see this". His English name is Caesar, but I kept making fun of him by calling him Scissors. Hence he gave me a pair of scissors to remember him by 😅 😅 # komtep2019
It was September 9th and we were still adjusting myself to the new environment. Regardless of feeling a little bit under the weather, I was indeed stoked of going to Korean school for the first time ever in my life. A lot of questions were playing in my head such as, "Will they accept me?", "Will we be able to understand each other", and so much more. Trying to get rid of the insecurities, I took out my camera and started to do a quick video on my social media - simply to let family and friends back home know where I was heading to that morning. We met our teacher mentor, Miss Song at the rendezvous place called GS25 (a convenient store similar to 7 Eleven in Malaysia). Our journey to school took about 10 minutes. We were surprised to see the welcoming banner that was prepared for us. That was indeed very thoughtful of them. No wonder our mentor teacher asked us what we would like to be addressed as. Upon arriving at the entrance, we were asked to take off our sh...
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