Every Day Is Special: June 6 – Memorial Day in South Korea

June 6 – Memorial Day in South Korea

Posted on June 6, 2017

I like the fact that South Korea celebrates its Memorial Day by ringing a siren all over the country at 10 a.m. People are invited to stop what they are doing and silently honor those who have died in the service of their nation.

Some folks pray, others remember loved ones, still others contemplate sacrifice and national honor, duty and peace.

In the U.S., we just had Memorial Day a week ago, but I am afraid that many of us lost sight of the reason that the day was established in the first place. It's not that I'm against road trips, family barbecues, or backyard naps - I think those things are great! - but it would be kind of nice if we had a one-minute siren cry. Maybe it could be at 1 p.m., Eastern Time, 12 noon, Central, 11 a.m., Mountain, and 10 a.m., Pacific Time. Alaska could hold its siren-blast at 9 a.m., and Hawaii at 8 a.m., or they could just go for doing the minute-of-silence at 10 a.m. at their local time zones - why not sleep in a little?

South Korea has only one time zone, and so such concerns aren't raised by a country-wide siren.

In addition, of course, there are memorial ceremonies at cemeteries, especially at the National Cemetery in the capital, Seoul, and flags are flown at half-staff.

I would love to celebrate South Korea's extensive beauties, whether natural...