One of the means of experiencing the Korean culture is to watch some performances with representative Korean cultural elements. There are in fact some good performances which you can enjoy even if you don’t know Korean. Let’s talk about some of them in this blog post. Continue reading
taekwondo
Who is the founder of the Korean nation?
Tomorrow (i.e., 3 October 2016) is the National Foundation Day in South Korea. This day is also known as Gaecheonjeol (개천절) which literally means “the day on which the Heaven opens”. This day commemorates the opening up of the sky and the descent of Hwangung (환웅) , son of the Lord of Heaven, from Heaven to earth which laid the foundation of the first Korean nation of Gojoseon established by Hwangung’s son, Dangun (단군), in 2333 B.C.. This day has been designated as a national holiday in South Korea since 1909. The story of the founding of the Korean nation is based on the myth of Dangun in the Samguk Yusa (삼국유사 – Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms). Continue reading
Korean martial arts culture – Taekwondo
Before talking about taekwondo, I wish you a happy White Day as tomorrow (14 March 2015) is White Day in South Korea. What is White Day? On Valentine’s Day (i.e. 14 February), the females give chocolate as gifts to their lovers and on White Day (i.e. 14 March), the males reciprocate by giving candies to their lovers. Actually, to the South Koreans, there is always something to celebrate on the 14th of every month – for more detail, you may refer to my blog post dated 14 January 2015.
In this blog post, I will talk about one of Koreans’ national sports – taekwondo (태권도). In fact, taekwondo has a long history and is a kind of sports which most, if not all, Korean males have learnt. Koreans in their 30’s and 40’s may still remember a popular cartoon robot character called Taekwon V which was good at taekwondo. Nowadays, taekwondo is a form of martial arts practised by more than 70 million people in 188 countries. Continue reading
Korean Culture Blog 