Happy Christmas!

The first Monday in months for me without Martial Arts classes, so I’ll be kicking around the Christmas Tree tonight 🙂

I bumped into this informative link today about how Christmas is celebrated in South Korea.

Random Geekery

Diving further into Korea-facts, I read that both the Crane and Hibiscus (H. Syriacus, Korea’s national flower to be exact) are seen as important symbols of good fortune, perseverance and eternity.

This combination of words reminded Mr. E  (as I read them to him out loud just now :)) of ‘The Cranes of Ibycus’, a ballad unknown to me, by Friedrich Schiller.

It’s worth a read in the original (German) version as well as the one translated to English, both of which can be found here.

Schiller, a German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright, wrote ‘The Cranes’ 7 years before his death, as part of a friendly poetry competition between him and his good friend Goethe.

And so we’re back around the tree, from Christmas to Korea to romantic poetry.