the Korean Christmas spirit

might sound funny, but they have it, and the real it.

Christmas here in Korea is an interesting thing. About 30% of the population are Christians, and not the ones who go to church to be baptised, married and for their own funeral or the ones who check Protestant on their census forms but can't actually name which denomination but the real ones. Church every Sunday, prayers before bed etc etc etc. There's even Korean Pat Roberts' and Jerry Falwell's who essentially use the church as a money making scam or to preach hatred and intolerance of everyone and everything. They have it all!

However, for the other 70% of the population it's all rather unimportant. They are mostly Buddhists, mostly the never actually meditated, not sure which sect of Mahayana Buddhism they are and go to temple only when they want something without seeing the inherent contradiction in that kind, but there are a few devout ones as well. However, the first group, in my opinion, has nailed Christmas. Sounds funny but here's why:

For them Christmas is celebrating, at most, the birth of a man who advocated peace and more usually just a public holiday with the importance of the Queen's birthday in Commonwealth countries. So what do they do? Couple's go out for coffee and do a bit of shopping, some might go on an overnight trip together. Friends go to eat together or go to get a few drinks. Parents take their kids to the park or to a movie or just give them a day to play video games and hang out (something they get to do far far too little here). Gifts may be exchanged but they are small. Earrings for the girl, new shoes for the boy etc. There's no mad dash to the shopping malls (E-Mart was quiet last night), no spending three paycheques on buying garbage for people who don't need it anyway. Retail at Christmas in the west shows you the true evil of humanity (there's only one $800 gaming system left! Rampage!).

Now that's not to say the nominal Korean Buddhists have Christmas figured out exclusively. Korean Christians do something that virtually no Christians do on Christmas Eve and day (the census Christians). They actually go to church. For real. They have realized that Jesus actually plays an important role in their religion (in fact, I think the idea that he is the saviour is what differentiates them from Muslims and Jews) and the importance of celebrating his birth. One of my students (a Christian) told me that her family gets up Christmas morning, goes to church, then the father drops them off and goes to Baskin Robbins for a big ice cream cake that they then all eat together. That is Christmas for her, and she can't wait.

Now that isn't to say that Koreans have it figured out with all things. As mentioned above the older generation all go to the Buddhist temples to pray for their grandchildren's test results, or their son's promotion or their own hip surgery etc. I'm fairly certain that the central tenets of Buddhism involve shedding yourself of desire and that Siddhartha specifically said NOT to worship or pray to him. So praying for him to satisfy your desire seems to me to be the opposite of what you should be doing, but hey, maybe in 2500 years they'll mess up Christianity as much as we have (Buddhism is that old, it's not a type-O). I just think it's funny that they have shed away 2000 years of bs and, as a society, and have come up with their interpretation of Christmas, and it's far more faithful to the original idea than ours is.