Some old students

Here’s a couple of former students.  It’s hard to believe, but they’re probably about nine now.  I remember them when they were kindergarteners.  They were a lot of fun to teach. 

They’re dressed up in traditional clothes because it was around the time of the lunar new year.  While you often see children dressed up in hanbok for the traditional holidays or for their birthdays, I haven’t seen men wear it as much.  Some women wear it often.  At Myeong-dong Cathedral in Seoul, there are always some women in hanbok who help take up the collections.  There are also some women for whom wearing traditional dress counts as their Sunday best. 

Here in Gyeongsangnam-do, it is a bit warmer than in other regions of the country.  I’ve noticed some older men wearing white linen traditional clothes.  They looked really comfortable, despite being long-sleeved.  In Namyangju, there was one older gentleman who always wore traditional clothing.  He was the only Korean man I’ve seen wear the full hanbok, even complete with the hat, outside of a cultural performance of some type.  You see the full costume at performances of traditional music and at Confucian ceremonials.  But you almost never encounter it in the subway, except perhaps on major holidays.  I would sometimes see him around town.  Generally, he’d be wearing the complete ensemble.