By Park Moo-jong
Tomorrow is Children's Day when the nation takes the day off to get together with the "masters of tomorrow" and this year people are lucky enough to have one more holiday on Monday, as the day falls on Saturday.
"Fly high in the blue sky, birds. Run through the green fields, streams ... Today is Children's Day, our world," so run the lyrics of the day's song, chanting the first festive day of May, the queen of the seasons, which is young, fresh and bright, as Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), an English poet, stated in "The Canterbury Tales," "He was fresh as is the month of May."
The fragrances of lilacs and acacia trees and the bright verdure make us feel relieved and comfortable despite the stubborn fine dust and yellow sand, though only for a while. Adding even more luster to this already brilliant time of year are the various special days for sharing gratitude and grace.
With the start of Children's Day, May in Korea features, one after another, such celebrated days as Parent's Day on May 8, Teachers' Day on May 15 and Coming of Age Day on May 20. And the people have another day off on May 22, the anniversary of Buddha's birth, the eighth day of the fourth month in the lunar calendar.
This Queen of the Seasons "forces" people to have thinner wallets, but they are happy because they have someone whom they can spend their money on. To respect parents and teachers and to love children are the beautiful virtues of our society, no matter how much the world changes.
Tomorrow, there "may" be no scolding and rod at least. Colorful extravaganzas will delight the growing buds. Rich or poor, parents are supposed to dine out with their children and make them happy with various gifts.
Above all, the pillars of any family are children, despite a recent trend among young couples not to have kids in order to enjoy their own lives, pushing the nation to the top of the list of lowest birthrates in the world.
Children's Day reminds me of a phrase in "Time and Tide" written by John Ruskin (1819-1900), a leading English art critic of the Victorian Era: "The first duty of state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed and educated, till it attains years of discretion."
Two centuries after his birth, are we doing so?
Our children must wish it could be like this every day of the year, free from the stresses of studying, particularly after-school "gwawae" to learn piano, taekwondo, computer skills, painting, English and so on, without hearing complaints or orders from their parents.
Nope! The reality is stark: from Tuesday, they have to wake up as usual and will have busy "schedules" arranged by their parents wishing to raise their children in a particular fashion.
Korean children of today are too busy with heaps of work to do, to play with their friends, and their tight schedules drive them out of playgrounds. They are lonely. Working couples' children are especially lonely. Their only consolation and friend is their smartphone.
Many surveys show one problem facing children is that they have little time to talk with their parents, particularly their fathers, who use the signature excuse of being too busy. Cell phone and TV further deprive them of the chance for dialogue at home.
Parents, instead, tend to compensate by giving their children money, thinking that they are at least doing something for their lonely offspring. This trend backfires making children increasingly naughty and selfish.
Young working couples tend not to discipline their children for rude behavior in public places, saying that they don't want to depress them.
As everybody knows, the latest shameful scandalous affairs involving the Cho family of Korean Air is a natural result of poor home education, reminding people of the phrase: "Like mother, like daughters." Children mirror their parents.
Ignoring education for good character and etiquette, parents place top priority on study, clinging to the power of material things.
It is already something of a legend that mothers read bedtime stories or fathers take sons to public baths on Sundays. Not only for this special holiday, but for the rest of the year, more concern and care is necessary to make our children cheerful and to help them grow up to be well-mannered citizens, so that they can always say what's true and speak when they are spoken to.
A healthy and happy family makes children healthy both mentally and physically and well-mannered, knowing how to concern about others.
The purpose of celebrating the special days of May is to renew the meaning of family. A wholesome sweet home atmosphere is a source of energy to invigorate the social activities of each family member.
People of today need to recall the precious words of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910): "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
The family is the basic unit of a society, and a sound family grows sound children. This builds the foundation for a sound society and a sound state, where people fulfill their given duties and take responsibility for what they do. And then people do not have to take a lesson from the disgraced Cho family or get angry with corrupt public officials and politicians any more.
All human affairs start and end with the family. In an era of the ever decreasing population, children are the very pillars of our society and they have the right and duty to grow bright like the bright month of May.
Park Moo-jong is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper founded in 1951 from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974. He can be reached at moojong@ktimes.com or emjei29@gmail.com.
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"Fly high in the blue sky, birds. Run through the green fields, streams ... Today is Children's Day, our world," so run the lyrics of the day's song, chanting the first festive day of May, the queen of the seasons, which is young, fresh and bright, as Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), an English poet, stated in "The Canterbury Tales," "He was fresh as is the month of May."
The fragrances of lilacs and acacia trees and the bright verdure make us feel relieved and comfortable despite the stubborn fine dust and yellow sand, though only for a while. Adding even more luster to this already brilliant time of year are the various special days for sharing gratitude and grace.
With the start of Children's Day, May in Korea features, one after another, such celebrated days as Parent's Day on May 8, Teachers' Day on May 15 and Coming of Age Day on May 20. And the people have another day off on May 22, the anniversary of Buddha's birth, the eighth day of the fourth month in the lunar calendar.
This Queen of the Seasons "forces" people to have thinner wallets, but they are happy because they have someone whom they can spend their money on. To respect parents and teachers and to love children are the beautiful virtues of our society, no matter how much the world changes.
Tomorrow, there "may" be no scolding and rod at least. Colorful extravaganzas will delight the growing buds. Rich or poor, parents are supposed to dine out with their children and make them happy with various gifts.
Above all, the pillars of any family are children, despite a recent trend among young couples not to have kids in order to enjoy their own lives, pushing the nation to the top of the list of lowest birthrates in the world.
Children's Day reminds me of a phrase in "Time and Tide" written by John Ruskin (1819-1900), a leading English art critic of the Victorian Era: "The first duty of state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed and educated, till it attains years of discretion."
Two centuries after his birth, are we doing so?
Our children must wish it could be like this every day of the year, free from the stresses of studying, particularly after-school "gwawae" to learn piano, taekwondo, computer skills, painting, English and so on, without hearing complaints or orders from their parents.
Nope! The reality is stark: from Tuesday, they have to wake up as usual and will have busy "schedules" arranged by their parents wishing to raise their children in a particular fashion.
Korean children of today are too busy with heaps of work to do, to play with their friends, and their tight schedules drive them out of playgrounds. They are lonely. Working couples' children are especially lonely. Their only consolation and friend is their smartphone.
Many surveys show one problem facing children is that they have little time to talk with their parents, particularly their fathers, who use the signature excuse of being too busy. Cell phone and TV further deprive them of the chance for dialogue at home.
Parents, instead, tend to compensate by giving their children money, thinking that they are at least doing something for their lonely offspring. This trend backfires making children increasingly naughty and selfish.
Young working couples tend not to discipline their children for rude behavior in public places, saying that they don't want to depress them.
As everybody knows, the latest shameful scandalous affairs involving the Cho family of Korean Air is a natural result of poor home education, reminding people of the phrase: "Like mother, like daughters." Children mirror their parents.
Ignoring education for good character and etiquette, parents place top priority on study, clinging to the power of material things.
It is already something of a legend that mothers read bedtime stories or fathers take sons to public baths on Sundays. Not only for this special holiday, but for the rest of the year, more concern and care is necessary to make our children cheerful and to help them grow up to be well-mannered citizens, so that they can always say what's true and speak when they are spoken to.
A healthy and happy family makes children healthy both mentally and physically and well-mannered, knowing how to concern about others.
The purpose of celebrating the special days of May is to renew the meaning of family. A wholesome sweet home atmosphere is a source of energy to invigorate the social activities of each family member.
People of today need to recall the precious words of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910): "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
The family is the basic unit of a society, and a sound family grows sound children. This builds the foundation for a sound society and a sound state, where people fulfill their given duties and take responsibility for what they do. And then people do not have to take a lesson from the disgraced Cho family or get angry with corrupt public officials and politicians any more.
All human affairs start and end with the family. In an era of the ever decreasing population, children are the very pillars of our society and they have the right and duty to grow bright like the bright month of May.
Park Moo-jong is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper founded in 1951 from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974. He can be reached at moojong@ktimes.com or emjei29@gmail.com.
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