Monday, October 28, 2019

Halloween Growth

When I came to Korea 10 years ago Halloween parties were only to be found in 1) foreigner bars and 2) kindie hagwon, or private academies catering to kindergarten and elementary students.

Things have changed, I guess.  Even in this little suburb of northern Daegu I've noticed a few Korean bars, specifically the bars catering to my college students, setting up for Halloween parties.  (I know for a fact foreigners don't go to the places in my neighborhood, because other than my foreigner co-worker there aren't any.)

There's even one place, a fried chicken joint, that closed down recently.  It was strange to see it hadn't transmogrified into a noodle restaurant or coffee shop or even (this being Korea) a new fried chicken joint.  In fact, it's been gutted and is being turned into some kind of Halloween haunted house with stupidly expensive tickets (like 40 bucks or so).  Not that I'm going, but I'll be disappointed if it's not all-you-can-drink at least.

So I think it's fair to say Halloween has "made it" as an adopted Korean holiday.  (If you're wondering, Christmas is actually an official Korean holiday, with a real day off and all that.)

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