Everybody Loves Saturday Night
As I promised in the most recent Seasons of Community Living dispatch, this post is a glimpse into Saturday night in Yeongwol Community.
Also, I want to welcome you again to my new blog posting platform. To continue following updates from Yeongwol, I recommend switching over to substack with me here: Why Korea on substack.
We’re about twenty-five people including whichever guests happen to be visiting. Age range 5 years to 65 years. The “young people” (myself and two others also in their twenties) do the dinner preparation: We set up about five folding tables in our communal dining room. And chairs — we do have those. Buffet-style meals work the best but we set the places ahead of time; too many chopsticks get dropped when people are trying to balance a big plate of food. Frequently, we put a decoration in the center of the table — I love getting creative with that.
The food is important, but Saturday night we try to come up with more than that. To celebrate the Lunar New Year, and welcome the year of the rabbit, I handed out crayons and we each drew our “띠” or birth-year animal according to the Chinese Zodiac. Out of the twelve animals, we were missing monkey, snake, and dog. I was year of the tiger along with four others in the room. Our tigers all had wonderful, unique character as did each drawing. We hung them in order with great ceremony and individual appreciation. A delightful display of artistic skill all ‘round.
Here’s a few other Saturday evening notes: just the wintertime, indoor mealtime activities. (Late spring, summer, and fall saw us on the lawn doing outdoor games after dinner.)
-drew pictures of each other, guessing was hard
-paper airplane contest (that was dangerous)
-voluntary participation charades: acting out a ‘winter’ related action or thing
-hired someone as live basketball hoop and tried slam dunks with balloons (it didn’t really work but it was hilarious)
-upped the game: balloon volley ball, two teams: chaos
-themed evening: “beauty”, write down two of the most beautiful sights you’ve ever seen and act out one (of course, one of the men wrote down his wife’s name).
-tower building contest with flat river rocks, ardent participation
-singing with instrumental accompaniment — we have a collection of nature-themed and random folk songs — rattles, tambourines, toy drums, recorders, violins, ukeleles, guitars. It was loud!
-and more.
I can’t remember all the activities, but thanks to community members, all I and the other youth need to do is instigate a bit of fun and creativity, and everyone scores high on participation usually. Impromptu skits, songs, or challenges like wiggling ears or patting your head while rubbing your stomach get us all laughing.
I love it that Saturday night can be enjoyable. I hope all in attendance leave feeling light-hearted or warmed in some way. That’s why I put effort into the evening. We all need to end a busy week enjoying each other’s company. Perhaps the person who’s been looking down, will have a smile on his or her face. Perhaps the stressed mom can laugh with her kids (since everyone’s being crazy). Perhaps after an evening of laughter, the grudge I held against someone or an emotional or spiritual burden of some sort will be lightened and diminished as it should be.
Laughter is the best medicine. Saturday nights in Yeongwol are a weekly prescription.
