Ipchun

Thursday is Ipchun or the official beginning of spring according to the lunar calendar used by the Chinese and Koreans.``Ipchun'' is one of the 24 seasonal divisions that mark the start of spring. It is characterised by mild easterly winds chasing away the winter frost, bugs awakening from their long winter sleep  and fish shrugging off their sluggish habits to swim more actively beneath the icy layers of lakes and ponds.

Apricot blossoms are another sign that warmer spring days are around the corner.

Some ladies admiring pussy willows in Busan

A foreigner maintains a Korean tradition. Koreans used to stick papers called ``ipchuncheob'' on the ceiling or above entry ways to welcome the new season. The papers would carry hopes for the new year such as  "Ipchun daegil" meaning "Great Fortune in Spring" or "Spring Leads to Paths of Greatness" OR ``Geongangdagyeong '' which stands for "Happiness and Fortune Arriving With Spring".

Cute kindy kids in hanbok, posting couplets written in hanja at the gates of the Namsangol Hanok Village in downtown Seoul. The greetings read, ‘Welcome Spring With All Blessings,’ and ‘Spring With All Fortune.’

from Korea Times,  Photo by Shim Hyun-chul

 Ipchun is also the time when halmeonis and ajummas get together to make doenjang ( fermented soypaste).

Can you feel the east wind blowing and hear the ice melting now?

Sources:

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/02/05/2010020500249.html
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/02/04/2010020400309.html
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/02/115_38787.html
http://www.korea.net/news/news/newsView.asp?serial_no=20090130013&part=106&SearchDay=
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2009/02/115_38907.html
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2009/12/153_39068.html