Before May 5: Korea’s earlier celebrations of children

A group of Korean children staring at the camera in the late 19th century / Robert Neff Collection

For children, one of the most popular days in Korea is May 5 — Children’s Day. Showered with gifts from relatives, they become, for a brief period of time, the monarchs of the household, their every wish granted.

Bang Jeong-hwan (1899-1931), a champion of children’s rights, believed that if they were spared ridicule and contempt, they would grow up to become respectful citizens. He is credited with the creation of Children’s Day.

But according to early foreign accounts, even before the 1900s, there were Korean holidays that celebrated children.

In the mid-1890s, Christopher Thomas Gardner, a member of the British Legation in Seoul, wrote:

“Early in May the streets are full of toys for the little ones and on the day itself the town is given up to children wearing bright new clothes and enjoying themselves. The sight in the big main street, with its throngs of happy children in their bright clothes, each child with its hands full of toys, accompanied by their fathers and grandfathers in snowy clean white raiment, showing in keen contrast with the somber grey tint of the nearest houses, and the dark-green of the fantastically shaped mountains in the distance, seems a glimpse of fairyland, and would have delighted the heart of Hans Andersen.”

A posed photograph of Korean boys in the late 19th century / Robert Neff Collection

An even earlier reference to a children’s holiday comes from William W. Rockhill, an American diplomat who served in Korea for a short time in the 1880s. According to Rockhill, on the eighth day of the eighth moon, a grand feast was held in honor of children.

“Poles are set up, and on them are fixed flags during the day and lanterns at night. Lanterns are also hung about the houses in which children have been born in the year, and paper fish attached to the poles in the courtyards.”

At night, candles were lit and carefully observed. If the candle burned down completely, it was believed the child born that year would live a long and prosperous life. If not, the child’s life would proportionately be shortened.

Korean girls in the late 19th or early 20th century / Robert Neff Collection

Foreign visitors seemed especially taken with Korean children — but their accounts were not always consistent. It is not uncommon to read in letters home or travelers’ accounts published in newspapers and magazines of the shocking manner in which young children roamed the streets — naked except for a short jacket or shirt. In fact, many people referred to Korea as the land of naked children.

Some missionaries worried that Korean children seemed too worldly and feared they would corrupt the morals of their own children. Others noted the children’s propensity for mischief. Rarely did they publicly comment on their own children’s mischievousness — only their personal diaries and letters home do they quietly confess the sins of their offspring.

Smiling Korean children in the early 20th century / Robert Neff Collection

Nearly everyone agreed that Korean children worked hard — perhaps much harder than children in their own homelands. According to the book, “The Modernization of Seoul and its Trials” (published by The City History Compilation Committee of Seoul):

“Children in the Joseon period had to worry about various kinds of work. The son of a yangban (aristocratic) family had only to worry about reading his books, but the children of middle and lower class households had to do housework and also work to make a living. In particular, the household work of women and children was harsh. [They] had to take care of not only folding clothes, but laundry, cleaning and other various chores. Boys had to chop wood in the mountains and rake leaves. In addition, children often had to draw water from the neighborhood well.”

Horace N. Allen, who arrived in Korea in 1884 as a missionary and later served as the American representative to the Korean Empire, was very proud of his two sons and rarely mentioned their transgressions in his letters home but frequently wrote about his encounters with Korean children. Allen tended to be cranky, but when it came to Korean children he usually described them fondly. In fact, Allen once wrote:

“Korean children are like the young of other lands, except that perhaps they are more generally well behaved.”

I hope everyone — young and old — has a wonderful Children’s Day.