It's no surprise that cities like Boston and Chicago, with all their Irish-Americans, throw big St. Patrick's Day celebrations. But Seoul? Yep - they celebrate here, too. I guess everybody is glad for an excuse to party and wear green!
Ok, so it's not widely celebrated, or even widely known in Korea; most of my students had never heard of St. Patrick's Day. But there were a couple of events going on around town. On Saturday afternoon I went to a free celebration sponsored by the Irish-Korean association; a good number of people - Koreans as well as expats, sporting green and wearing big smiles - were out enjoying the sunshine and spring weather. They had a parade and games and face painting, and that was all especially fun since I was there with Sun Young and her two girls. They loved the balloons and the parade and the zaniness of it all.
Ok, so it's not widely celebrated, or even widely known in Korea; most of my students had never heard of St. Patrick's Day. But there were a couple of events going on around town. On Saturday afternoon I went to a free celebration sponsored by the Irish-Korean association; a good number of people - Koreans as well as expats, sporting green and wearing big smiles - were out enjoying the sunshine and spring weather. They had a parade and games and face painting, and that was all especially fun since I was there with Sun Young and her two girls. They loved the balloons and the parade and the zaniness of it all.
Saturday evening I went to another gathering; this one was put on by the Irish embassy, but it wasn't free. Crystal and I decided to splurge, because there's no better place to celebrate St. Patty's than an Irish pub - right? Wrong. The food was really, really good, and the ticket price also included all you could drink. But after dinner and one Guinness, we decided the whole affair was overpriced and overcrowded; rather than sticking around in a noisy, smoky bar packed with loud, obnoxious Americans, we headed out to the less-crowded streets (and that's really saying something in Seoul!) of the Myoung-dong shopping district and browsed the stores there. Who says you can't celebrate St. Patrick's Day by shopping?
2 comments:
So - on St. Patty's Day do the Koreans serve corned beef with their kimchi? Just wondering.
Chicago CAN do it up right. I missed the downtown parade on the actual day, but I went to the South Side Parade the Sunday before. How do you feel about a mile of drunks in green? That is how you would feel at the parade. Wardrips brought the baby! Peter did not like the Irish touching or looking at Little Luso. Katrina hi-fived strangers.
I thought of you because I got more tattoo on my tattoo! I will post a picture, someday. I went with a friend and she didn't want me to hold her hand but she did need a series of stupid stories and Munchos. We used Jameson (left over from St. Patty's) in lieu of Vicodin. Vicodin is better. And you are missed!
Stay strong, stay true, stay Irish(ish).
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