At the tail end of my last post I included a picture of a little boy in hanbok, traditional Korean dress.
On our walk through Bukchon, in Seoul, an area with many houses built in the old way, the tradtional fashion, we came across this little boy being set up for a photographer. Both of his parents were dressed in hanbok as well.
His father was working hard to prop him up beside a door.
His mother stood in the street calling encouragement while the photographer was moving about for good angles from across the narrow path.
The mother nodded permission for me to take pictures, too.
Keeping junior on his feet facing the camera without assistance clearly involved a team effort.
The occasion as I understand it is the child's first birthday, called Tol, a word that can also be used generically to indicate birthdays. Historically the child's first birthday calls for special celebration because the mortality rate for children before the first birthday was high. There is also a traditional celebration marking the first 100 days of life, baek-il, but the one year mark is the more significant. Mortality rates in modern times have improved to the point where the celebration is truly observed as tradition.
We found ourselves entertained by the photo shoot and lingered longer than we probably should have. My interest in taking the boy's pictures did not garner a dinner invitation for us, however, so we pushed on. I can only hope the photographer got some good pictures out the occasion.
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