#229, Itaewon
Halloween isn’t a Korean tradition. Walk around any neighborhood in Seoul and you won’t see kids dressed up in costumes trick-or-treating. It feels just like any other day.
Except in the neighborhood of Itaewon. Itaewon is a trendy area in Seoul with vintage shops, restaurants, and pubs with an international flavor. Here, Halloween night is an event as young adults and even celebrities flock to the area for a night of celebration. After two years of strict social distancing guidelines, attendance soared this year with an estimated 100,000 people in attendance.
Less than a decade after the tragic Sewol incident in which 299 high school students drowned, Korea has suffered another significant loss of innocent young life.
To complete this Journal response, address the following:
In fifty years, when we look back at this tragedy, what lesson do you think we’ll take from it? Or will there be no lesson at all?
Comment on a peer’s response.
-Brenden Teacher