Children's Day

Do you know what Children's day is? Back home in Minnesota, we don't celebrate Children's day. There is Mother's Day, and Father's day, but not a children's day. However it seems like a good holiday all around.

Some basic history for those who don't know what it is, though it is pretty obvious from it's name I would say. May 5th is the official Children's Day in the Republic of Korea. They day is set aside by parents for activities with their children, and they often give their children presents. Schools tend to have sports festivals and presents and awards prepared for the children as well. 

My school had a Children's Day sport festival. When I first heard of this, I was horrified. I remembered days were I was forced as a child to go play sports outside in the burning sun, and as would come as no surprise to my friends, or perhaps even my teachers from those long ago days, I still loathed the idea of repeating such an experience. I dreaded the day, I bemoaned my fate. Standing in the hot sun, children uncontrolled and screaming all around me, toilets you had to squat over, a lunch of questionable origin... I was not anticipating the day with any thought of joy. Especially not going back to school and teaching after it was all over.

However, much to my, and I'm sure everyone who knows me well, surprise, I had a great time. The day was hot, there was burning sun, I'm bright red, I'm tired, but seeing all the excited, happy children, and enjoying the events with them, really was a good time. I was at the finish line of the Sprint Race, and I got to give out the medals to the students. It was fun to interact with different classes. There was also face painting the kids could do and it was enjoyable to see what they really liked. They were competitive, red team versus blue team, and yet they worked together and had a good spirit. No one cried! They enjoyed all the games, and even doing the chicken dance. We did the chicken dance at the open and the closing of cerimonies. There was also a race with the teachers. I was on the blue team, and somehow we lost, but I don't think it was a fair game. Not that red team cheated, just that one of our people was down doing something and took forever to get there so it was all her fault! ahem. We were way ahead and would have won if not for her. I was sad to loose, and it was hard to remember that we had to show all the kids around us that it was ok to loose... The great part is that the blue team won the entire games though cause the blue team kids blasted red team out of the water, so we got a victory through our kids. 

Here is a small video of some activities and the end of the chicken dance. I couldn't get anything else because I had to do the dancing and activities and was running around the entire time, so no more than this.

After this we walked back to school, had a snack, gave out the grand prizes to the winners, and sent home the happy but tired children. Then Elementary started, and the last 15 min of those classes the kids were given snacks and let to play games and given umbrella's as presents. Umbrella's are great presents because the rainy season is almost here!

I had a great day, smiled the entire time, and never would have thought it would be so wonderful. Another experience here I'm so glad I've had.

Edit:

I forgot to mention lunch! Lunch was a fun time were all the kids shared their food with me, and there was things they brought specifically for me. It was really weird to see all of the teachers taking food out of the kids lunchboxes, but they explained it's expected and that parent's pack for that. I made sure to tell them it was very good and tasty. Here are pictures of lunch.