Connolly's Chuseok

Daniel Connolly, left, sits with his wife during the wedding ceremony.

By Jhoo Dong-chan

Chuseok used to be the quietest and most boring holiday for Canadian Daniel Connolly when he first came to Korea 12 years ago. But the Korea University student says marrying a Korean changed the whole picture.

"Chuseok was just a completely empty time. In contrast, after I married, it became full of activities with no time to rest. I think it is an interesting contrast," said Connolly.

The 35-year-old Canadian, who had never left his hometown of Kamloops in south central British Columbia, Canada, chose Korea as his first destination overseas and came here to work as an English teacher in 2002. He met his wife in his second year in the country and got married the following year.

Since his marriage, he has started to participate in Korean rituals for traditional holidays. He goes shopping for relatives, drives for hours to meet his parents-in-law, and has big dinners with them.

But he said such big gatherings of family members always feel good to him.

"My wife's parents liked me right away when I first met them to ask their permission to marry their daughter," Connolly said.

"Despite the language barrier, my in-laws always make me feel involved as a family member. They love me so much." But just like Koreans, he sometimes gets stress going through all the fuss during the holiday.

"(Chuseok) is sometimes little tiring. There are too many people in the department stores when we need to buy presents for my in-laws. Plus, we need to go through the annoying traffic on the road," he said.

Although he is always happy to meet his wife's family, he sometimes thinks it would be better if he can visit them before or after the holiday period.

Obviously, his wife and her family have influenced his life in this country including the way he celebrates the holidays, but he is not the only one who has changed.

His wife, who had never been to other countries, met Connolly and tied the knot with him ― the first person in her family to marry a foreigner. But years later, his wife's two sisters also married foreigners ― one a Canadian and the other a New Zealander.

"Initially I was the only foreign son-in-law. And then later on, there is another one. Now we have third one. The family has become very international after all," he said.

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