{"id":29211,"date":"2026-03-01T20:06:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T11:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kramerconsult.kr\/?p=29211"},"modified":"2026-03-01T20:10:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T11:10:58","slug":"samiljeol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kramerconsult.kr\/nl\/samiljeol\/","title":{"rendered":"Samiljeol"},"content":{"rendered":"
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March 1 in Korea: flags, a free Monday\u2026 and suddenly I\u2019m thinking of Tehran<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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This morning I stepped outside for a bit and I noticed it right away: more Korean flags than usual<\/strong>. On balconies, in front of small shops, on public buildings. Not in an overly \u201cparty\u201d kind of way\u2014more like\u2026 present<\/strong>. As if the country is quietly saying: we don\u2019t forget this.<\/em><\/p>

And because March 1 falls on a Sunday this year, there\u2019s a practical bonus: Monday, March 2 is a day off<\/strong> for many people. Sounds pretty nice (and honestly: it is), but it also creates the same confusion every year: \u201cOh, so Korea is celebrating Independence Day.\u201d<\/p>

Only: not quite<\/strong>.<\/p>

March 1 here is \uc0bc\uc77c\uc808 (Samiljeol)<\/strong>. It\u2019s not \u201cthe day Korea became independent,\u201d but the day Koreans, in huge numbers, stood up and said: we want to be free.<\/em> That was March 1, 1919<\/strong>, during the Japanese occupation. It started with a declaration of independence, and before you knew it the whole country was moving. People shouted \u201c\ub9cc\uc138!\u201d, walked together, listened, joined in. And yes\u2014it was met with harsh repression. So this isn\u2019t a soft, feel-good piece of history. This is the kind of history where families still carry stories. And if you live here, you sense that it still vibrates under the surface.<\/p>

That\u2019s why I find Samiljeol such a special day. It\u2019s not about \u201cwe won,\u201d but about: we made ourselves heard<\/strong>. That\u2019s different. Maybe even deeper.<\/p>

And then\u2026 this afternoon I picked up my phone. Just to check the news. And suddenly my head wasn\u2019t with those flags in Korea anymore\u2014it was in Iran<\/strong>.<\/p>

I read about the horror, the protests, the crackdown, the situation that has long stopped being \u201cpolitical news\u201d and has become plain human tragedy. And now, in just a few days, it seems to have escalated even further: strikes, retaliation, the looming threat of a bigger war. You read it and you think: how does a country ever find its way back to calm from here?<\/p>

But what struck me most was something else. In between fear and chaos, I also saw reports of something almost impossible to process: that in and around Tehran there were moments\u2014brief, fragile\u2014of relief<\/strong>. Shouts from windows, car horns, fragments of \u201cmaybe something will change.\u201d Not because war is good. But because some people have been trapped for so long that even a dangerous break can feel like a crack of light.<\/p>

And that\u2019s where Samiljeol came back to me.<\/p>

Not because Iran and Korea are the same. They\u2019re not. Not at all. But because there\u2019s one human thread I can\u2019t ignore today:<\/p>

When freedom isn\u2019t a given, symbols<\/strong> start to matter. \u201cTogether\u201d starts to matter. The street starts to matter.
In Korea you see it today in flags and in a remembrance day that everyone knows. Calm, organized, almost taken for granted. And precisely because of that, you realize: this comes from somewhere. This was built on pain, resistance, pride, loss\u2014everything mixed together.<\/p>

And maybe that\u2019s also why March 1 still matters here, even for younger people<\/strong>. Sure: for many, it\u2019s also simply a day off and a long weekend. But the story is still in their heads. In school, in films, in families, in the street view. It\u2019s not something you \u201clike.\u201d It\u2019s something you carry<\/strong>.<\/p>

What can we take from it? I\u2019ll keep it small, because big lessons quickly start to sound preachy. But this is what I\u2019m carrying with me today:<\/p>

  • That remembering isn\u2019t only looking back\u2014it\u2019s also a kind of maintenance of your dignity.<\/p><\/li>

  • That a day off can feel light and still carry a heavy story.<\/p><\/li>

  • And that hope sometimes shows up in the strangest places\u2014even when you think only fear should be possible.<\/p><\/li><\/ul>

    Tonight I\u2019ll see those flags again, hanging here. And I know: for many people it\u2019s \u201cjust\u201d Samiljeol.
    But if you pause for a second, you get it: this isn\u2019t just a Sunday with some red-blue-white. This is a country that keeps saying, out loud: we\u2019re still here.<\/em><\/p>

    Sources (selection)<\/h4>

    • Korean rules on substitute public holidays (\ub300\uccb4\uacf5\ud734\uc77c)<\/strong> when a public holiday falls on a weekend<\/p><\/li>

    • Background on Samiljeol<\/strong> as a remembrance day for the March 1, 1919 independence movement<\/strong><\/p><\/li>

    • General background on the March First Movement<\/strong>, including its scale and the repression that followed<\/p><\/li>

    • Reporting on the current escalation involving Iran<\/strong> and international responses (UN Security Council coverage)<\/p><\/li>

    • Reporting that mentions mixed reactions in Tehran<\/strong>, including accounts of people showing cautious relief<\/p><\/li><\/ul>

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      March 1 in Korea: flags, a free Monday\u2026 and suddenly I\u2019m thinking of Tehran This morning I stepped outside for a bit and I noticed it right away: more Korean flags than usual. On balconies, in front of small shops, on public buildings. Not in an overly \u201cparty\u201d kind of way\u2014more like\u2026 present. As if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kramerconsult.kr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kramerconsult.kr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kramerconsult.kr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kramerconsult.kr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kramerconsult.kr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kramerconsult.kr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kramerconsult.kr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kramerconsult.kr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kramerconsult.kr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}