Happy New Year! Today, it's every Korean's birthday!
It's FINALLY 2017! The end of quite the tumultuous year of 2016 in both the US and Korea. It's always darkest before the dawn, and I wish safety and success for all fellow Steemians in the coming 364 days.
As a fun little article/blurb today, we present a little topic for cocktail party conversations. In Korea on New Year's Day, EVERYONE turns 1 year older. This is a philosophy that harks from ancient Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese traditions.
First off, in Korea you are born at AGE 1. In traditional numeric systems of Asia (and I believe the Middle Eastern regions?) counting didn't start at “0”. Your first year is your first. The next year alive is your “second” year on earth. It does seem strange that if a newborn baby could talk, they would say “I'm 0 years old” or “this is my 0th year.”
New Years as a result is the collective day we celebrate being technically 1-year older, or having survived another year. This concept still remains in Korea (that's why we call it “Korean age”), that we all age together and on our birthdays celebrate the concept of our years alive.
So..... Happy Birthday everyone on Steemit!
Oh, and Happy New Year too... if that's more important than your birthday....
follow me @hansikhouse! | design collective @hitheryon
