Today we had the Ground Breaking Ceremony for the new
building at school. We were all told to
dress up in our formal clothes and to be prepared for a very traditional
ceremony. This ceremony deserves a blog
post all of its own.
Thanks to Mrs. Kim, who works at school, we were given a
slight idea of what was to come. She
sent us a video which you can find below.
Basically, we knew there would be a pig head and that we were asked to
participate as much as we felt comfortable.
As cool as it sounded, the comfort level dropped a bit as soon as we
were handed money to stuff in the pig’s snout and then bow to it on the
ground. The money was for the
construction workers so that they could go party. They told us that really we were just wishing
for safety for the workers. That’s all
great, but we were a little concerned about bowing to a pig head. The principal was very understanding,
thankfully, and said we could hand our money to someone else and just hide out in
the back. We were told several times
that it wasn’t a religious act, but it sure felt like it to us.
There ceremony was definitely very interesting, complete with
a Buddhist Monk. The director of the
school spoke, the Buddhist Monk did some things, and a few other Korean
spoke. Then they did the pig part. All of this in the rain. It was very interesting, that’s for
sure. We were also given a gift by the
school of a towel with the school’s name in Korean, and the date. I guess that’s a common gift.
I don’t know when we’ll ever have the chance to see something
like that again, so it was cool to see and be a part of it. Enjoy the photos and video!
The link to the video is here
The Pig Head
The entire ceremony set-up
Pig Head with the money
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