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Koreans Celebrate Spring With Cherry Blossoms
By JARROD HALL
(SRFK7LPHV6WDൠ
Residents of the central South
Korean city of Daejeon celebrate
the cherry blossoms blooming
with traditional Korean drumming and dance as well as rituals asking for blessings from local
spirits.
Every year in April, as winter
gives way to spring, Koreans come
out to celebrate the blooming of
the cherry blossoms. They come
in droves to city parks, gardens,
sports ovals, suburban streets
and ancient temples, to enjoy
the sight and scent of the flowers
and to bask in the outdoors after
spending the long winter cooped
up in high-rise apartments.
“In springtime everybody
wants to go out,” said Seo Hyojung, who celebrates the festival
every year with her family and
friends, “The cherry blossom
festival is a time when we can go
outside with children and enjoy
the beauty of nature.”
This year she is out enjoying
the cherry blossoms with her fiancé, American university lecturer Ezekiel Mentillo. He also
loves the festival and says it is the
favorite of many expatriates in
South Korea. “It almost feels like
snowfall in the springtime, only
it’s warm and you really get to appreciate the contrast of the white
against the dark mountains, it’s
really pretty.”
In this country of ancient traditions and historic monuments,
the cherry blossom festivals are a
relatively new celebration. They
are also a bittersweet joy for many
Koreans. The cherry blossom is
widely recognized as the symbol
of Japan.
A Politicized Past
For 35 years last century, Japan forcibly occupied the Korean
peninsula. During this time, Korean culture was suppressed and
Koreans were forced to farm the
land for Japanese landowners.
Some families were even forced
to sell daughters into prostitution
to pay high taxes to the Japanese
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government. Most of the cherry
trees in Korea were planted during this time as a symbol of Japanese culture. The occupation
ended in 1945 with the defeat of
Japan in World War II.
To most Koreans, the Japanese
occupation is history; the festival is about flowers—and nothing else. But Korean homemaker
Soo Hyongju admits, “Some people were hurt by the Japanese and
they can’t just forget. The Japanese still haven’t apologized for
what they did.”
But she stresses that any bitterness is directed at the Japanese
Government. “We don’t feel bad
towards the Japanese people,”
Soo said.
The Japanese have been planting and cultivating cherry trees for
their beauty for over a thousand
years. They were originally used
to decorate the gardens of the
nobility in the ancient Japanese
capital of Kyoto. To the Japanese
they symbolize good fortune and
love as well as the fleeting beauty
and fragility of life. But the tradition goes even further back.
The origins of the festival lie
not in Japan but with the Tang
dynasty of ancient China. During this period (618 – 907 AD), the
Japanese imported many cultural
practices from China, including
the annual flower viewing. Nobles, artists, and aristocrats would
gather and celebrate the changing
of the seasons in gardens filled
with blooming flowers.
It was only in recent times that
the blushing blossom took on a
role as a Japanese national sym-
bol. During the war, Japanese pilots would paint cherry blossoms
on the side of their planes before
suicide missions or even take a
small branch of the tree with them
in the cockpit when they flew.
Despite a history littered with
Korean-Japanese rivalry, Koreans have adopted the cherry trees
as their own.
Many Korean spring traditions have become part of the
celebrations. There are countless
street festivals all over the country celebrating the blooming of
the cherry trees that center on
ancient rituals. They are believed
to appease local spirits and bring
about good fortune and happiness to the residents throughout
the coming year.
While picnicking under the
cherry blossoms, Koreans indulge
in good food and drink. They eat
Buchimgae, which is best described as Korean pizza, and
drink liquor called Makgulli.
Though the trees were planted
as a symbol of cultural domination over half a century ago, times
have changed and Koreans have
accepted the cherry trees and love
them as their own. Ancient practices have adapted to a new arrival and the Korean people look
on the positive side of things, trying not to dwell on the past.
“Sometimes when I see the
cherry blossoms I think about
how they are Japanese,” said
teacher Kim Suye. “I feel a little bit sad inside but only a little
bit and then it’s gone. The flowers
are so beautiful I just enjoy the
flowers.”
VIEWING: Residents of the central South Korean city of Daejeon celebrate the cherry blossoms blooming
with traditional Korean drumming and dance as well as rituals asking for blessings from local spirits. JARROD
HALL/THE EPOCH TIMES
The Borrowing and
Re-Borrowing of Words
By CHRISTINE LIN
(SRFK7LPHV6WDൠ
Do you wear khakis to work
and pajamas to sleep? Do you
slather ketchup on your franks?
If you heard a catchy tune, would
you do the boogie? The terms that
English speakers use to define
their everyday lives are chock full
of words borrowed from other
cultures, often unbeknownst to
the speakers themselves.
With the help of trade and empire, the English language has
absorbed—and is continuing to
absorb—a great deal of foreign
vocabulary. In the above examples, khakis and pajamas are
derived from “khak,” the Persian words for “dust,” and “pyjamas”—“loose pants.”
Ketchup, as American as it
has become, is derived from the
Malay word for vinegary sauce;
franks are short for the German
frankfurter, native to Frankurt,
Germany. The word boogie, etymologists speculate, came from
the West African verb bogi, to
dance.
English is considered a Germanic and Indo-European language, the former being a subset
of the latter. The major early influencers of the English we speak
today are Latin and Early Germanic languages.
Then, when trade to other
parts of Europe expanded in the
Middle English period (11001500), Scandinavian and especially French words flooded the
writings of the time, particularly
in the areas of law, military, and
cuisine.
Words become conventionalized when the borrowing language no longer perceives them
as foreign words. The French
word foyer has shed its original
pronunciation (foy-ay) and become (foy-er) in many parts of
the country. The word tycoon,
which we throw around so often
now, was originally taikun ʨ
Ѽ) in 19th century Japanese, a
title for a shogun, which was derived from the Chinese ʨ‫ ׇ‬pronounced daigoon in Cantonese)
meaning “high official.” Somewhere along the way in its English
usage, the term stopped referring
to people in public service, but
rather in the private sector.
Borrowing occurs when two
language groups interact. Both
groups are likely to borrow
words from each other, but
more often than not,
the language from
which more words
are
borrowed
is
wealthier
and
more
powerful.
The combination of
globaliza-
Sapphire Arts Center
tion and the affluence of Englishspeaking nations has propelled
English terms into the vernacular
of people around the globe. English, with all its borrowed words,
might just become
the medium
by
which
words of all
cultures
transfer
throughout the
world.
Mon. - Sat.: 10:00am-7:00pm
Tel: 718-863-0031
718-938-8602
2923 Westchester Ave.
Bronx, NY 10461
AMERICAN: As much as ketchup has become a Western icon, the word
“ketchup” itself has roots in the Malay word “kechap,” meaning vinegar
sauce. MINGGUO SUN/THE EPOCH TIMES
(6. Train to Buher Ave.)