Open New Year Symptom

In previous posts I have extolled the value of Global Voices. In an earlier age I imagine it to be like reading a really good international newspaper. Global Voices brings to my dark cave here in the wilds of Kentucky the light of a world vibrant and alive. So here is something that this backwards boy never gave a whole lot of thought to...

Korea: Lunar New Year, do men also struggle?

Saturday, February 9th, 2008 @ 10:12 UTC

by Hyejin Kim

New Year! It’s a big holiday in Korea. People return to their hometowns and worship their ancestors. People gather with relatives whom they haven’t seen for a while. For entertainment and respect for ancestors, preparing meals is a big job. Now New Year has produced a new symptom, ‘New Year Symptom of Housewives’ because of the hard job. Housewives have headaches and some of them get depressed before New Year starts. ‘New Year Symptom’ became a new term in this modern society.

But men are asking, ‘Do men have no ‘New Year Symptom’?’

New Year Symptom… it is not just for housewives… Let’s talk about New Year Symptom of men. The first and last symptom is that they don’t want to go back to their hometown or their wives’ hometowns. […] Looking at how much time you spend on the path of going back to the hometown, my time is spent to 40 percent on the road, 20 percent in my hometown, and 40 percent in my wife’s house. […] In order to see relatives, I can’t go with empty hands. I have to bring bottles of alcohol and meat that fill up my car. Before I go to see my ancestors’ gravestones, I’m already worried. Mother and father… Why did you guys pass away so fast? This undutiful son will go to see you, but can’t trim your graves this time. Please forgive me.

I get depressed around the Christmas holiday here in the US. I have/had read enough pop-psychology to know that this is mostly a reaction to the bi-polar stress of capitalistic materialism verses the Christian Birthday Celebration (oh and I won't forget all my other friends that are caught in the Winter Solstice stresses as well.)

Why is the above article so important? How else would this naive WASP living in the heartland of these United States ever have a clue about what is impacting potentially 1/3 to 1/2 of the world's population?