North Koreans have been celebrating the
Lunar New Year holiday as one of the most important of the year for more than two decades, but the turn of the
calendar this year saw an amendment to that practice: the main observance of the new year is to occur on January 1st, the Solar New Year, and is to include multi-day events and additional time off from work. The upcoming Lunar New Year, however, is set to pass as solely a one-day observance on February 19th.
“A document containing orders from the
Party’s Central Committee was handed down a few days ahead of the Solar New Year, stipulating that from 2015 people will celebrate January 1st as a ‘meaningful holiday,’” a source in Yangkang Province told Daily NK on Monday. “It
also added that the rest days [the number of which vary by year with little reported consistency] previously allotted for the Lunar New Year will be reduced to one, falling solely on the official day of observance.”
She added that in accordance with this most recent directive, North Korean residents were given five days off from January 1st, which included the weekend and the following Monday, though the situation on the ground is known to vary with many residents engaging in market activities regardless.
For the people of North Korea, this change is hardly a first-time occurrence. Back in
1967, Kim Il Sung declared the Lunar New Year holiday an outdated practice running counter to socialist practices, decreeing that people would thereafter celebrate New Year’s according
to the solar calendar. In 1989, however, a policy emphasizing the superiority
of the nation reverted the holiday back to follow the lunar calendar. This order expanded in 2003, when Kim
Jong Il ordered the holiday be extended from a one-day observance to include additional rest days, the number of which fluctuated depending on the year.
According to the source, the the practice of reverting to broader celebrations surrounding January 1st is to rekindle memories from the events following the Suryeong’s [Kim Il Sung] New Year’s Address. “This
is to invoke a sense of nostalgia for the Suryeong, so that people associate [Kim Jong Eun] as a leader on par with his grandfather.”
“While we have celebrated the new year according
to the solar calendar at times in the past, traditionally we have
observed the Lunar New Year holiday as the larger occasion. Many were taken aback by the
sudden orders telling people to change their practices,” she explained. “Most people are especially disgruntled because they feel that the Marshal’s sudden decision to hand down these orders was solely to mimic the Suryeong.”
Most are baffled by the perpetual changes, questioning if “there could possibly be another country in the world that changes its holidays as often as Chosun [North Korea],” and pointing out how the lack of continuity begets unnecessary confusion amid the hardships of an already difficult existence.
