Korean Holidays, or a lack thereof.
Korean life January 27th. 2009, 10:00pm2009
1 Jan New Year. (Celebrated on a Thursday)
25-27 Jan Seollal (Lunar New Year) (Celebrated on a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday).
1 Mar Independence Movement Day. (Celebrated on a Sunday)
1 May Labour Day (not an official public holiday but many companies and financial markets close). (Not celebrated at my school, occurs on a Friday)
5 May Children’s Day. (Celebrated on a Tuesday)
2 May Buddha’s Birthday. (Celebrated on a Saturday)
6 Jun Memorial Day. (Celebrated on a Saturday)
15 Aug Liberation Day. (Celebrated on a Saturday)
2-4 Oct Harvest Moon (Chuseok). (Celebrated on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
3 Oct National Foundation Day. (Celebrated during Chuseok. ALSO ON a SATURDAY!)
25 Dec Christmas Day. (Celebrated on a Friday)
Other than Lunar New Year, this year SUCKS for holidays. Anything celebrated on a Saturday or Sunday isn’t really celebrated at all by schools I work at, and there are long stretches of months where there are absolutely no days off. While having two days off this week, and one day off for New Year’s Day was nice this month, the next time I’ll have any time off on a weekday is probably Children’s Day in May, four months away. I’m not even sure they still celebrate that holiday officially anymore. Even if I get that time off, there isn’t another multiple day holiday during the week for the rest of the year. Chuseok stealing National Foundation day this year, but still falling on a weekend to shrink the numbers of days off even more is also a gigantic insult to all workers. These lunar holidays really suck, because they fall on weekends and don’t get moved.
There used to be more days on the list, like Arbor day, but those got removed as a concession for moving to an officially sponsored 5 day work week at most offices. As a resul, in 2009, I will get a whopping five officially days off this year. No snow days. No days off for good behavior.
The fewer the holidays, the worse it is trying to plan anything specifically for those days to join them too. Train, bus, and airplane reservations disappear months in advance every time there is a three day weekend or a lazy work week because everyone else is thinking the same thing, “I’ve got to get out of this office and relax!”
While the situation may seem hopeless, there are at least two bits of vacation I can plan for in advance. I’ll be taking off work when the baby arrives, as well as when my parents show up a few months later. Depending on if I sign my contract, there are also two weeks of non-paid “vacation” sometime during the year that might be offered. Who knows what I’ll be told about those vacation days when they actually arrive. Depending on the franchise, I might even have to surrender free time I have on a weekend for “Training” too. I will not take to that kindly.
Financially, the long periods of time I work uninterrupted by vacation is a boon. I get paid by the hour, and missing days hit my checkbook. However, my sanity is also a boon to my finances, and nothing makes a year seem longer than a long string of months with no hope of getting some time off for yourself. It might seem petty to complain right at the end of a four day weekend, but I won’t get another decent Korean holiday until Korean Thanksgiving in the fall of 2010, and that’s just ridiculous.
2 Responses to “Korean Holidays, or a lack thereof.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
January 27th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Yes, new recruits are going to face the harsh reality that the ever popular “all national holidays” clause in all the job advertisements really doesn’t mean much over here where they don’t substitute a Friday or Monday off when the holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday. Luckily, my hagwon gives the teachers an extra day off every August in addition to closing for a day or two to give the owners a break with their kids and the kids some time to spend with their parents and to just be kids for a very little while.
January 28th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Occasionally a school will celebrate a day off if they know the parents aren’t going to complain. School opening days, “Teacher’s service” day…but not in the neighborhood where I work.
Math schools in this neighborhood hold classes EVERY single day of the week and include all holidays. They literally can no longer compete with each other based on time because students DON’T have any more free time that they could spend in the class. Now they add secondary subjects like science to the curriculum. One of the students I teach studies at a Math/Science academy 3 times a week for four to six HOURS each visit in addition to her normal Korean schooling. She goes to this Math/Science during the early afternoon and finishes around midnight. She’s in the first grade of middle school. She also has classes on SUNDAY to review the materials they slept through during the week.