the gift of seollal

back in december, drew’s kindergarten class did a unit on winter holidays around the world. his teacher sent home a note asking for parent volunteers to come in and share their cultural traditions.  polish winter holiday traditions…don’t really practice any despite our heritage.  i know quite a bit about dutch sinterklaas…but we aren’t dutch.  seollal is in the winter…it’s korean…and so is leo…hmmm

i always thought i would be giving a presentation like this to leo’s classes…helping his classmates and teachers understand and connect to his culture.  it never really occurred to me that i could (should) do this for drew and his classmates too.  but, why not?!?  i said it then, and I will say it again now…the gift of adoption keeps on giving!! so, i did my homework and prepared to give a presentation on the korean new year that hopefully the kids would like and also learn something from.

on decemeber 12^th i got to spend some time in drew’s classroom teaching them about seollal – the korean lunar new year.  i explained that korean new year is called sol-nal and that this winter it will be on january 23;  that sol-nal lasts three days and is a time for families to get together to celebrate and honor the older members in the family...with no school or work people in korea during this time.  and then i asked them if they wanted to learn how to count to four in korean by learning four important things that korean kids get to do on their new year’s day.  they did!

here is what they learned

on new year’s day in korea, korean kids:

hah-NAH (1) wear something nice - they get dressed up in nice clothes or their traditional hanbok [i brought in leo’s hanbok and showed the class pictures of what a girl’s hanbok looked like]

tool (2) do something nice for their grandparents – they give respect to their grandparents by bowing and then their grandparents give them words of wisdom and a gift – usually some money. the kids were so excited to point out that chinese kids get money at new year’s too! [i taught the boys…and then the girls…how to bow.  they did a great job!]

set (3) eat a special meal that always includes a soup with dumplings in it [i described dumplings and taught the kids how to say mandu.  i also told the class that koreans believe that you don’t turn another year older until you eat this soup – and that kids like to joke around and ask people how many bowls of soup they’ve had - & tell them that they are now that many years older]

net (4) play games – kite flying for the boys, see saw for the girls and yutnori for the whole family [i showed the class a book/picture of girls playing on the see saw and also brought in yutnori – letting the kids pass around the game sticks and showing them some of the basics of the game]

during my entire time in the classroom, i was so proud of drew!!  he was engaged and visibly proud.  proud that i was there.  proud that our family is part korean.  and, proud to help me teach his classmates how to count to four in korean and share with them is favorite korean foods.  adoption…the gift that keeps on giving.

drew’s classmates asked quite a few questions…most of which i don’t remember because they weren’t exactly on topic.  but, one of drew’s buddies asked the last question – and it was a good one.  he asked if i was born in korea. i said no, i was born in the united states – in michigan.  he then asked if drew was born in korea.  i said no, he was born in minneapolis.  [at this point I started to sweat and pretty much feared that this kid had figured out i was an imposture…a fraud…just a mom reading from the internet] and then i said, drew’s brother was born in korea and last year we went there to bring him home.  that seemed to appease him…but then i really started to sweat! did i really just say that…had i just opened pandora’s box? how many more questions were now swirling around in this kid’s head and the heads of his classmates because of this statement? this was not the time to discuss adoption…and thankfully, i was able to successfully change the subject.

afterwards, it clicked for me though.  the question was a good and innocent one.  he simply wanted to know if i had been born in korea.  which, after thinking about it, i very well could have been.  or I could have been born in mexico or israel or russia or somewhere in africa.  kindergarteners still think of people just as people.  no stereotypes.  no judgments.  they think of people just with simple and innocent curiosity.  what a gift that is.  and, i am so happy…so honored…that was i was able to go into drew’s classroom in december and help those kids learn a little bit more about kids half way around the globe in korea.  to help them see and understand that in many ways kids are all alike…celebrating important holidays with their extended families, wearing nice clothes and eating special food, and playing their favorite games with family and friends…just like we do here.

seollal is just a few days away  and it appears the krekelbergs have added a new way to bring in the lunar new year.  forget superstitions like eating black-eyed peas, kissing at midnight or throwing salt over your shoulder.  what we did (and you might want to consider) is break a big ole jar of kimchi and let our house and garage smell nice and spicy/stinky (or “good!” as drew would tell you) to welcome in the new year!!  yep, unintentionally, that’s what we’ve done.  so far, it is definitely serving as a nice reminder of our korean heritage.  hopefully it will bring us some luck in 2012 too!

we also plan doing some more traditional things too…taking in a korean drum and dance performance and eating some korean food.  and, we plan on keeping the lights on in our house throughout sunday night.  we wholeheartedly want to welcome the new year - as they do in korea - with brightness and open eyes. what a great way to do it!   i love the symbolism!!

until next time…happy seollal ~ shine bright!

**a big thanks to drew's teacher for the pictures**