Lunar New Year celebrated in N. Korea

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korean citizens observed the Lunar New Year
holiday on Monday, exchanging well-wishing remarks and playing folk games, as the
nation continued traditional celebrations despite deep economic woes.

State-run media portrayed citizens greeting the holiday as "vivacious" and
"optimistic," reporting on various festive sights in Pyongyang including a
bustling souvenir shop, a children's folk games contest and neon signs sparkling
downtown.
"We are striving to provide varied and unique greeting cards and souvenirs to the
customers to meet their growing emotional demand," Kye Young-ae, chief of the
Pyongyang Greeting Card and Souvenir Shop, was quoted as saying by the Korean
Central News Agency monitored in Seoul.
South Koreans' mass holiday exodus to rural hometowns is not common in North
Korea where movement is restricted, but the Koreas share the spirit of Seol -- as
the lunar new year is known in Korean -- to exchange well-wishes, pay respect to
elders and ancestors and celebrate the new year.
North Korea once prohibited official celebrations under the socialist banner that
rejects Korea's feudal traditions. Seol and Chuseok -- Korea's traditional
thanksgiving holiday in early autumn -- were removed from the North's national
holiday list in 1967 when President Kim Il-sung issued an order to "eradicate the
vestiges of feudalism." The nation replaced Seol with the solar New Year's on
Jan. 1.
The radical policy didn't hold long. The government allowed visits to ancestral
graveyards for Chuseok in 1972 and later restored the Lunar New Year's Day in
1989. The one-day Lunar New Year's expanded to the current three-day holiday in
2003 under the directive of leader Kim Jong-il to give greater importance to the
traditional holiday, according to the Choson Sinbo, a Korean language newspaper
in Japan that usually conveys North Korean policy.
As in South Korea, family members gather early in the morning, make a New Year's
bow to elders, exchange well-wishing remarks and play folk games like kite-flying
and "yutnori" (a competition of two teams to decide which side advances faster on
a scoreboard by throwing four sticks). Sport events of Korea's traditional
wrestling, called "ssireum," are held on public yards.
Simple, but well-intended signs that read "New Year's bow," "folk holiday" or
"Seol" are put up on shops to mark the day.
School children stage mass folk performances in Mangyongdae Schoolchildren's
Palace in Pyongyang for foreign envoys, international organization staff as well
as North Korean party and military officials.
A national folk games contest of schoolchildren is underway at Kim Il Sung Square
and other places of Pyongyang. The five-day contest pick winners on Monday among
hundreds of students representing each province.
"The contest shows well the vivacious and optimistic life of the school
children," the KCNA said.
In the North's 1.1-million strong military, soldiers feast on pigs they have
raised in their units and typically receive soy oil or flour sent by the United
States or South Korea, Seoul's military officials say. South Korea stopped
shipping its customary humanitarian aid a year ago amid frozen inter-Korean
relations.
A female North Korean defector, who escaped the country in 2003, recounted people
shared feelings of togetherness in the North even though they lived in want. On
the Seol holiday, they manage to have some rice and pork stew to celebrate the
new year, she said.
"In the South, you don't even know who your neighbors are, but in the North,
village people exchange greetings and well-wishes on Seol," the 42-year-old
defector who wanted to be identified only by her family name Kim said.
Another defector, however, said economic wooes increasingly shadowed the festive
mood. Customary rations of up to 1 kilogram of rice for Seol diminished, and most
North Koreans are forced to observe the day on their own, she said. The
government can't provide rations as many factories remain closed due to the
shortage of electricity and resources.
The North's frail economy appears headed for negative growth this year. After the
famine in the 1990s and international economic sanctions, the North's gross
domestic product in 2007 was valued at 20.7 trillion won (US$14.9 billion), even
lower than its output in 1990, estimated at 24.1 trillion won, according to South
Korea's central bank.
"In the old days, people gathering in the mills and waiting to get their rice
cake done was a common scene. But with the economic problems, rations are not
provided well, and people have to buy food in markets on their own," the
61-year-old defector surnamed Lee said.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)