Koreans don’t really celebrate Christmas, with only 27.6% of the country practicing Catholicism and the majority 56.9% practicing no religion it’s not surprising. However, unlike in it’s neighboring Asian countries, Christmas is an official public holiday and this year it fell on Monday so we were blessed with a three day weekend, otherwise it’s just the day off and back to work on the 26th. It’s been strange, no traveling, no town preparation of Christmas lights and work the week before and day after. But I had been listening to Christmas music since the week of December, watching Christmas movies, done some Christmas activities in my classes and went away for the weekend with my friends, so it felt like Christmas to me.
For Christmas weekend we rented a house in Damyang, a city about 2 hours away from where I live. It’s famous for its bamboo forest, metasequoia tree lined roads and thermal baths. We saw none of those and spent the weekend locked up in the house playing games, watching movies (couldn’t get through a full one), cooking and drinking. Korean houses don’t really have sofas like we do back home, especially when you’re renting for 19 people, so the majority of our time was spent on the floor on mattresses; like a futon mattress, but not as thick.
Surprisingly after an almost three day self imposed house arrest we emerged as friends, I’d say even better ones.