Happy Arbor Day!

A pity that the 5th of April is no longer a public holiday in South Korea. It would be nice to think that  people in the country are still doing their bit for the environment on Sikmogil, 식목일 ( "tree planting day"), whether they are school kids, soldiers, civil servants or village ajummas.

April has been, traditionally, a good time to start planting given the agricultural roots of Korea but the communal  tree-planting event gained a greater urgency after most of the forests were removed during the Japanese occupation and destroyed during the Korean War.

Caption from Korean Times: "Arbor Day event: The Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) gives out tomato and garden balsams seeds to customers signing up for its deposit plans and credit cards on a first-come, first-served basis on the occasion of Arbor Day, which falls today. The event, which will last through the end of April, is designed to boost a tree-planting campaign. / Courtesy of IBK"

source:
http://www.korea.net/news.do?mode=detail&guid=45440
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2010/04/124_63631.html