It's Arbor Day today here in Korea. Arbor Day started off as a public holiday after the Korean War, until this year. This is the final year Arbor Day will be celebrated as one of South Korea's public holidays....
It all started during the Korean war in 1950. The war between the communist North and the democratic South was so severe that forest and mountains were destroyed, along with the trees on them.
So, on the first spring after the end of the Korean war, the South Koreans had a country wide celebration of Arbor Day to begin the reforestation of the war ravaged country.
The Korean government designate April 5 as Arbor Day and made it a time for all the citizens to plant trees and other plants. Decades later, the forests have returned. Nowadays, citizens still plant trees and flowers and clean up the surrounding hilltops and mountain areas, and the day serves as a reminder to respect nature and the environment.
But from what my lecturer told us, the government decided to cancel this public holiday starting next year due to a few reason.
One is that since last year, most company and civil servants only work 5days a week, which causes slight drop in productivity.
The other reason is that now a day not many actually participate in tree planting on April 5, thus it's pointless to keep such a holiday.
Anyway, bye bye....my sweet public holiday
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