A month of holidays

May has many little holidays here in Korea. Not many of them are days off of work, but they're cute little celebrations nonetheless... May 1st is "Labor Day" in Korea. Many jobs get the day off of work, but not teachers. On May 5th two holidays overlapped- Buddha's Birthday and Childrens' Day. Buddha's Birthday is calculated by the Lunar calendar, so its date changes every year. It's a public holiday, so we didn't work that day. Some people had to choose between Labor Day and Buddha's Birthday for their day off- they couldn't have both since they were so close together. This was the first year that Childrens' Day isn't a public holiday, but because it fell on Buddha's Birthday, kids were off of school anyway. Many children get gifts, and many families take little trips to amusement parks or the beach or something else for fun with their kids. One of the main purposes is for fathers to spend time with their kids. May 8th was Parents' Day. They've combined Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day into one here. It's not a public holiday, either, so no one gets off of work. Kids make or buy gifts for their parents, though. The most common seems to be carnations- baskets of real ones, fake corsages, or paper carnations that they make. Adult children might give money or something more substantial. May 14th is "Rose Day." This seems to be only a commercial holiday. It's not even written on the calendar. I guess it's when sweethearts give each other roses. Coincidentally, it falls on American Mothers' Day, which I associate with roses as well. May 15th is Teachers' Day. Regular school doesn't have classes that day, but we do. Actually, last year I guess the Mirae teachers cleaned the school on Teachers' Day. I haven't heard what our plans are for the day. I'm guessing there will be at least a few little gifts from some of the students. May 24th is some sort of "Education Day" or something. According to the Korean teachers, school teachers don't work that day, either. But we do. May 31st is voting day. I guess it changes each year. It's not written on the calendar, and we didn't learn about it until yesterday. We actually don't work that day. We have the whole day off for voting. While it's nice that we have the day off, I'm actually a little miffed about it. No one told us earlier, and the next day is when Tracy and I head to Japan. We could've had an extra day there if we had known we had the day off!