Culture of Korea

  Kimchi is a big culture in Korea. Koreans have Kimchi almost every meal and they like to eat Kimchi with rice. It is a traditional fermented Korean side dish made of vegetables with variety of seasonings. There are over hundreds varieties of Kimchi and the most common vegetables used are cabbage, Korea radish, cucumber or scallion.

  In a restaurant, it is always served in small portion in a little dish where you can refill it if you asked the staff. The taste of Kimchi is spicy and sour. The sourness is produced during the fermentation stage. It is spicy because of the red chilli pepper. It could be salty sometimes depends on what region you are in. 
  If you are interested to visit Kimchi Museum in Seoul, you can click here. 
 

  Samul nori is a genre of traditional percussion music originating in Korea. It is performed with four traditional Korean music instruments which is kkwaenggwari (small gong), jing (a larger gong), Janggu (an hourglass-shaped drum), and buk (a barrel drum similar to the bass drum).

  Samul nori has its roots in Pungmulnori (literally “Korean traditional percussion instruments playing”), a Korean folk genre comprising music, acrobatics, folk dance, and rituals, which was traditionally performed in rice farming villages in order to ensure and to celebrate good harvests. 

Shoes Off

  If you are going to Korea, please remember to take off your shoes first before you enter a house or even some restaurants require us to do so. The reason for doing this is because it reduces the amount of cleaning you need to do inside. Most of Koreans use a low dining table because they usually sit on the floor when eating where you have to cross-legged.

  Also when entering to some traditional Korean restaurants, you will need to take your shoes off before entering to the raised floor level. Some restaurants provide shoes rack to put your shoes. 

Korea Religion

Buddhism

Buddhism is one of the religion in South Korea. It comes from Mahayana branch of Buddhism, similar to China and Japan. It is influence in society has declined recently, but there are still many Korean’s that practice Buddhism. The pictures above are one of the temple of Buddhism.

Christianity

Christianity has become popular in recent years in South Korea. Christianity was introduced to Korea by the Jesuits in China. Catholics spread very quickly, but were persecuted by the King who perceived it as a threat. Protestants began to enter Korea in the late 19^th century.  The pictures above is one of the world’s largest churches in Korea.

Public Bath House

  Korean usually go public bath house once a week, public bath house in Korea called as Mogyoktang. Mogyoktang included dry and steam saunas also nice large bath tubs with hot or cold water. Bathing in Mokgyoktang is one of the Korea culture, they scrub their body with special and colourful towel. (image as below) 

  This body scrub towel is used to scrub away dirt and dead skin from your body. You skin will be much softer after scrubbing your body.

  It is a must to bath in mogyoktang if you are going Korea, you can find it everywhere in Korea.