1st birthday party

Pastor Jonathan, the assistant director of the Seoul Main institute, invited our director, Pastor Kim, and all of the teachers to his son's 1st birthday party on May 27. In Korea 1st birthdays are a big event. I'm not quite sure why since Koreans don't count age by the western scale, but apparently 1st birthdays are the exception.

The event was held at a vegetarian restaurant about half an hour from the institute. Part of the restaurant was reserved for the large birthday party group of relatives and teachers. Pastor Jonathan, his wife, and his little son, Hyun Su (English name, Ken), were all dressed up in matching pink and navy hanbok, traditional Korean clothing. Each guest brought a gift of money, the traditional gift for a 1st birthday.

While we were waiting for the party to begin (apparently we got there early), we were asked to write a small note of well-wishing on small slips of paper that were placed in a box on the main table. During this time, Pastor Kim also told us teachers about a certain prediction event that takes place at 1st birthday parties. A tray is prepared with various career-associated objects arranged on it (for this birthday the tray included: a Bible, a pencil, a soccer ball, a toy microphone, a stethoscope, and a 1,000 won bill to signify the careers: pastor, writer, athlete, singer, doctor, and rich person, respectively). Each guest guesses which object the baby will choose when the tray is held in front of him. All the guesses are then put into different boxes labeled with the item that was guessed. Once the child has chosen an item, the parents draw a name from the box labeled with that item, and the guest's name who is picked gets a prize. So we all made guesses, wrote them on slips of paper, and put them in the correct boxes. When the time came for Hyun Su to pick an object, he eagerly picked up one item, then tossed it to the ground and grabbed a second one. The consensus was to put both items back on the tray and let Hyun Su try once more. Unfortunately, neither Jonathan nor I can remember what he picked on any of the tries, but neither of us guessed the final object...

Here are just a few pictures of the first Korean 1st birthday party, we attended. We didn't get many pictures, but we did have a good time and learn a lot about another new-for-us Korean tradition.

Teachers talking to Hyun Su and his parents

Tray with career-predicting items (not sure what the cloth items are, and the money was added later)

The family (mother's side is Japanese and father's side is Korean)