It is no secret that winters in Korea are cold but, judging from the various diaries and correspondences of Westerners residing in Seoul, the winters of the present aren t as cold as the winters of the past.
Bosingak, the bell tower at Jongno, the main street through downtown Seoul, is a popular spot for ringing in the New Year. One of my most vivid memories of this event was on Dec. 31, 1999, when thousands upon thousands of people crowded the streets around the bell in anticipation and fear of the impending new millennium (among those fears was the Y2K bug). The atmosphere was unbelievable and for blocks, it was impossible to move more than a few inches as the crowd surged back and forth as the New Year was hammered by the bell s tolling.
In the early 1880s, the first “products of Western civilization” that really appealed to Korean consumers were beer, matches and kerosene. During the 19th century, kerosene was the United States number one export item to the Korean Peninsula. In 1885, more than 162,400 gallons (614,750 liters) of American kerosene arrived in Jemulpo (modern Incheon).
As a boy, I often looked forward to wandering the snow-covered streets of my city to admire the Christmas decorations. Houses were lit up with countless lights - some were obviously color-schemed while others were haphazard assortments of whatever colors could be found - snowmen (when there was enough snow) stood silent guard in the front yards and sometimes Santa and his sleigh could be seen on the occasional rooftop.
“The introduction of kerosene,” according to John Jordan, the British consul in Seoul, “has worked a veritable revolution in village life in [Korea, with almost] every cottage possessing [a] Japanese lamp.”