Foundation Day

While living, and especially working in Korea, you come to wonder sometimes what the days off you get are actually for. Today is a national holiday in Korea, and I found out yesterday that it is in fact Foundation Day, which means it is in celebration of the founding of Korea almost 5000 years ago. 5000 years seems like a long time, and would be impressive if you didn't read the fine print about Foundation Day. It seems that it is actually the day that "marks the start of the Dangun Era" according to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper. What is the Dangun era? Again, according to the Chosun Ilbo, "Dangun is the mythical founder of Korea".

I'll let that sink in a bit here.

MYTHICAL!!!!!!!!!

We are celebrating, in this fine country, the mythical founding of a nation. That is just nuts. There are a lot of things that I can never understand about the people in this country and the crazy things they do and say, but this really, absolutely takes the cake. People here just can't question something if it was told to them by someone of stature or authority. And it's always been that way. In however long the Korean nation has actually been around, hasn't anyone said, "ummm, I don't think that actually happened, seeing as we all know it's mythical..."? At any rate, it reminds me of fan death, and other such myths in Korean culture. I suppose certain things could probably be found in western nations also, but this just seems like people expecting Neptune to crash a boat, or Thor to send lightning down from Asgaard.