Happy Hwangap!

In Korea, "hwangap," or the celebration of the 60th birthday, is a very big deal. You may have noticed, courtesy of Chinese restaurant placemats, that there are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. What you may not know is that your animal is also associated with one of the five traditional Chinese elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. You are therefore not only born in the year of the tiger, you are born in the year of the fire tiger. (Perhaps this is related in some way to William Blake?)

Your birth sign - be it rooster, pig, or whatever - is repeated every twelve years. But it takes sixty years to get back to the exact sign under which you were born: water rooster, or wood pig. Consequently, at sixty, you have lived through the entire zodiac. When you add this to the fact that in Ye Olden Days, living to sixty was quite the accomplishment, you have all the makings of a need for a major party.

My father turns sixty today - March 19. I am a derelict hwangap celebrating child, having provided neither rice cakes nor grandchildren for the celebration, but I did record my students singing happy birthday:



And here's the Korean version, for good measure (please note that I know the words! I have not learned much here, but I have learned that!)




So happy Hwangap, Dad! May your Earth Ox prosper!