[MANNAM] May 8th. Parents' Day in South Korea (1)

Parents' Day is a holiday similar to a combination of Father's Day and Mother's Day.

In South Korea, May is called "Month for Families" as there are Labor Day(5.1), Children's Day(5.5), Parents' Day(5.8), Adoption Day(5.11, since 2006), Teacher's Day(5.15), Coming of age Day(5.16, since '73), Husband & Wife's Day(5.21, since 2007) and so on.

In 1956, Mother's Day was established, then in 1973, it was changed to Parents' Day. Some said fathers complained about being unappreciated their sacrifices and hard work for their children. To me, it seems more reasonable to celebrate the day for both parents, since the moderns are too busy to hather with their families twice in a month.

The original principle of establishing the day was to honor parents for their devotions to their children, but soon it became commercialized just like Christmas has become. Therefore, it might be a good opportunity to think about the day's true meaning instead of just surfing on the internet for gift sets.

Parents' Day in the United States
The United States celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. In the 1880s and 1890s there were several attempts to establish a Mother's Day, but they didn't succeed beyond the local level. The holiday was created by Anna Jarvis in Grafton, West Virginia, in 1908 as a day to honor one's mother. Jarvis wanted to accomplish her mother's dream of making a celebration for all mothers, although the idea didn't thak off untill she enlishted the services of wealthy Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker.

she kept promotingthe holiday until President Woodrow Wilson made it an official national holiday in 1914. The holiday eventually became so highly commercialied that many, including its founder, Anna Jarvis, considered it a "Hallmark Holiday", i.e. one with an overwhelming commercial purpose. Jarvis eventually ended up opposing the holiday she had helped to create. She died in 1948, regretting what had become of her holiday. In the United States, Mother's Day remains one of the biggest days for sales of flowers, greeting cards, and the like; it is also the biggest holiday for long-distance telephone calls.