::A Geek in Korea::

My mother in law has been looking to start a family tradition on New Year’s for as long as I had been involved with her daughter. Coincidentally, that also gives her an excuse to spend more time with her granddaughter. I’m totally fine with her coming over and hanging out, but for the past few years she has been trying to get my lovely wife an I to go to a church service at midnight for New Year’s eve. There is a family blessing ceremony she wanted us to be there to witness. She then offered to let us sleep over at their house, then cook us breakfast and lunch on New Year’s day. Since we always go over to her house on New Year’s to eat rice cake soup (the traditional meal for New Year’s) we decided we’d finally attend the midnight family blessing ceremony.

Since it’s brutally cold, we got a ride from our brother in law to the church. We wrapped up in warm clothes, then headed to the children’s room of the church. There is a heated floor, a speaker, and a window looking into church. I’m also allowed to read a book in that room, as it is incredibly boring to sit through a Korean religious thing that I can’t follow a word of, or have any interest in, for an entire evening. We arrived an hour early because of my mother in law’s duties greeting people. A few old ladies made silly faces at Glow for quite some time before the whole shindig got started.

One other family with a baby ended up keeping us company during the long ceremony. Since the children’s section is in a soundproof booth, talking is allowed. We had a nice little conversation and generally just watched the children. After the pastor ran 20-30 minutes into the new year, the best quip in the room was, “Man, this ceremony is running long. This is going to be finished before the end of this year, isn’t it?” If we weren’t in the sound proof room my wife would have been thrown out of church for laughing so loud.

At the end of all the music and chanting there was a family blessing as advertised. We had to line up at the front of the church, take off our shoes, then kneel down on the stage. Luckily for us a family member saved us a spot in line and we went up first. They were working through the entire assembled congregation at a quick pace. Two minutes a family tops. Prayer assembly line. We went up on stage and were placed in a line on our knees, facing the cross. The only instruction I got from my wife was that I was supposed to look forward with my eyes closed and look like I was praying.

A guy I didn’t recognize came over and put his hand on our heads. We then had him pushing down on our head while he spouted off Korean prayers very intensely. They do the quick, raspy prayers where they are shooting out so many ideas at once you can barely hear one before the next one is being spoken. He was asking for something for the family and the individuals. The guy was very forceful with his insistences about the coming year. After he was done with our heads, he put BOTH hands on Glow’s head, said something that made her cry, and we were done. We just were blessed in Korean church? Okay then. We got our shoes on, got our stuff organized, and we were whisked away back home. It was…a weird New Year’s Eve.

The reason we went back to our house instead of their’s was because their house isn’t big enough to hold the entire family company. That meant we had to get up extra early on New Year’s Day and go over to their place for lunch. We didn’t get a bit of sleep because Glow’s sleep was disturbed with the late night church service. Truth be told, so was I. What the heck was that guy saying?

We were ragged this morning. We got picked up again and taken over to eat. We had a nice meal with the family, then I went for a nap. At different points in time either Glow, or my lovely wife joined me for the nap. A few hours later we ate a nice lunch/early dinner. I also went out and got some weather stripping for my mother in law’s windows. We put that up for her to save her some cash since she didn’t know about how it could keep her house warm. That earned me huge brownie points with the family. Increased efficiency makes me hot, so I was happy to do it. Eventually we ended up back at home, sleep deprived and ready to start the new year. It was the strangest New Year’s Eve/Day I’ve spent in Korea, but it was good to let other people spend time with Glow, so we’ll probably do it again next year.