Seeing a photo of the piles of rubbish left behind by exuberant but thoughtless or apathetic people who were out on the streets of my hometown left me wondering: Did the Koreans who welcomed the first sunrise of 2011 leave their paper cups of coffee, plastic bottles or party hats all over the beach or did most do the responsible thing and dispose of their rubbish properly?
I'd like to think that if you're going to celebrate the new year by communing with nature, you're more likely to take care of the environment and not leave your mess to be cleaned up by foreign labourers. But then that may be naive of me. If only we took more seriously more concrete yardsticks to measure how advanced a society is - instead of looking at the GDP, how about seeing how much or little waste is left behind by party-goers?
If any of you were there on the beaches and hilltops in Korea before dawn, could you share with me what you saw on the ground when it was lit up by the first rays of the sun?
sources:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/01/01/2011010100325.html
http://kl-nite.blogspot.com/2010/01/2010-new-year-celebration-area-kl.html
2 comments:
Last Jan. 1st took some friends to Bongil Beach (the one with King Munmu's tomb in Gyeongju) and the place was just trashed. Then again Bongil is usually a mess. It's a pebble beach and people are always leaving candles, bottles of makkoli and oranges as little shrines and offerings for King Munmu. Nobody ever cleans them up though and it was so much the worse for the New Years sunrise festival. One of these days I would like to get to Homigot for the sunrise, even if it's not on New Years ;-)
Hi Sherwin,
Many thanks for responding and oh, dear - am sorry to hear that Bongil Beach was a mess after New Year's Eve.
But your description of "candles, makkoli and oranges as...offerings for King Munmu" suggests to me that one person's mess is another's ritual.
I'm from an Asian culture that is used to leaving on roadsides ( usually makeshift shrines) offerings for the dead or spirits. Not quite in the same category as beer bottles for one's own drinking pleasure, discarded party hats and wax paper wrappings from McDonald's etc.
Then again, one might argue a mess is a mess. Is it possible to go through the ceremony of paying respects to King Munmu or whoever and then, removing the candles, makkoli and oranges? An interesting case of traditions versus environmental concerns?
Anyway, hope you get to enjoy a beautiful and inspiring sunrise when you visit Homigot!
Happy New Year to you! ( though the first week is almost over!)
Regards,
ajumma
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