Filial piety notwithstanding, Korea still hesitant to designate Parents' Day a national holiday

May is widely referred to as “family month” in Korea, with multiple commemorative days dedicated to familial bonds, such as Children’s Day and Parents’ Day. Despite their shared focus on honoring family members, the two are treated very differently.

Children deliver carnations to seniors at a welfare center in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on May 7, 2024, ahead of Parents’ Day. [YONHAP]

May is widely referred to as “family month” in Korea, with multiple commemorative days dedicated to familial bonds — most notably Children’s Day and Parents’ Day. Despite their shared focus on honoring family members, the two are treated very differently: Children’s Day is a public holiday, while Parents’ Day is not.

This year, Children’s Day fell on a Monday, creating a four-day weekend through Tuesday due to the overlap with the Buddha’s Birthday holiday. Parents’ Day, which falls on Thursday, remains a regular working day.

Since its inception, Parents’ Day has only been recognized as a national anniversary, not a statutory holiday.

The day was originally designated as Mother’s Day in 1956, reportedly following the death of Cho Shin-seong, a female independence fighter and pioneer in education who served as principal of Pyongyang Jin-Myeong Girls’ School. It was renamed Parents’ Day in 1973 to honor both mothers and fathers.

Yet the debate over whether to designate it as an official public holiday continues.

Designation limbo Efforts to turn Parents’ Day into a public holiday have been ongoing for decades. Former Democratic Party lawmaker Yang Seung-jo first proposed such a bill in 2010 during the 18th National Assembly. Since then, similar proposals have been submitted 14 times, but none have made it past standing committees for a vote in a parliamentary plenary session. All public holidays in Korea — whether statutory or temporary — must be approved by the Cabinet, after the bill passes the parliament.

During the 21st National Assembly, Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the People Power Party proposed making Parents’ Day a public holiday, arguing that it would not only boost domestic consumption but also reinforce the importance of family in a rapidly aging society. Yoon was also the lawmaker who first proposed the idea of alternative holidays back in 2008.

In November last year, he reintroduced the bill to amend the Act on Public Holidays, after the 22nd National Assembly began in May that year. Along with nine other lawmakers, he emphasized that a legal holiday commemorating filial piety, known in Korean as hyo, would provide families with more time to spend together, particularly in the context of declining birthrates and a rise in single-person and nuclear households.

A child pins a carnation corsage onto the clothing of a family member who donated organs, during a Korean Organ Donor Program event in Seodaemun District, western Seoul, on May 1. [YONHAP]

However, in February, the National Assembly’s interior and safety committee wrote in its review that while it acknowledged the bill’s intent, making Parents’ Day a paid holiday could create challenges for businesses and cause societal impacts due to closed public institutions on the day.

The Ministry of Personnel Management echoed the need for a careful decision, taking into account societal and economic impacts, as well as public opinion. It also highlighted that Korea currently has 15 official public holidays, excluding Sundays — more than countries like the United States and France, which have 11 statutory holidays, and Britain, eight days.

“A national consensus on whether the day should be designated as a statutory holiday needs to be reached, as individuals and groups from different sectors are likely to view the matter differently,” a ministry official said, adding that no further discussions on the designation are currently underway.

A person looks at carnations for sale at Yangjae Flower Market in southern Seoul on May 1, ahead of Parents' Day, which falls on Thursday this year. [YONHAP]

More holidays, less impact

Turning Parents’ Day into a public holiday was also a campaign pledge by former President Moon Jae-in. But in 2018, the Moon government ultimately scrapped the idea, citing concerns about a potential “child care vacuum” if schools and day care centers were to close.

The current government has shown similar hesitation.

Officials have noted that extended holidays often result in increased outbound travel, providing little benefit to the domestic economy. Recently, the government decided not to declare Friday, May 3, a temporary holiday due to concerns about its limited economic impact. Doing so would have created a six-day break from Labor Day on May 1 through the alternative holiday on May 6.

Travelers crowd Terminal 1 of Incheon International Airport on May 2, ahead of the four-day holiday. [NEWS1]

Data supports such skepticism. Earlier this year, the government designated Jan. 27 as a temporary holiday during the Lunar New Year period, which only resulted in a 7.3 percent rise in outbound travelers compared to the same month last year. Credit card spending in Korea also dropped 34 percent between Jan. 24 and 31 from the previous week, according to Statistics Korea.

For the latest May holiday period, Incheon International Airport Corporation estimated that 1.48 million travelers would pass through the airport between April 30 and May 6.

A holiday in spirit

Although Parents’ Day is not a statutory holiday in Korea, many people still observe the occasion by visiting their parents and giving them gifts or flowers. “Since Parents’ Day isn’t a public holiday, I will visit my parents on Tuesday, an alternative holiday, to celebrate,” said a 33-year-old office worker in Jung District, central Seoul, adding that she plans to give them some cash and a basket of carnations.

Carnations, which are the official flower of Mother’s Day in the United States, are commonly given by children on Parents’ Day in Korea. The flowers symbolize love and admiration.

Gifts wanted for Parents' Day [NAM JUNG-HYUN]

Koreans usually present red or pink carnations, or pin carnation corsages on their parents. It is also a longstanding tradition for younger children to make paper carnations at school and pin them to their parents’ clothing.

However, according to a recent survey conducted by Lotte Members’ platform Lime on April 11 and 12, 56.8 percent of 2,000 respondents said they planned to give their parents either a gift or cash for the day.

Among parents surveyed, 70.8 percent said they hoped to receive money, followed by clothing at 25.1 percent, travel packages at 24.3 percent, health supplements 22.1 percent and carnations 16.7 percent.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]