Student Essay 30: Family Traditions by Kwag Kyung Seo

Important Family Traditions by Kwag Kyung Seo, Year 11, ISKL

Do you have any important family traditions? My family has several important traditions and I would like to tell you about two of them.

To begin with, among all the traditions that my family has, the one that I like the most involves playing traditional games whenever our extended families meet up at my grandparents’ house. We play many different types of traditional games, including card games, board games and yard games. These games are important because we area all equal – regardless of age, gender or status. Everyone has an equal chance to win. Often, we play a game called ‘Yut-Nol-Yi’, a traditional game which originated from the ancient Korean Empire ‘Goguryeo’. To play the game, we form teams of four. The members of each team must be from different nuclear families. We have to work closely together to win the game. This really helps us to maintain a good relationship with each other. Moreover, it is fun and makes us look forward to gatherings at our grandparents’ house every holiday.

Furthermore, on every important holiday, like New Year’s Day and Thanksgiving Day, my family holds a huge feast for the entire village. It is our way of giving back to the people. As my grandparents are generous and pro-active people, they often help poor people, even when they were poor themselves. Now, their children continue their kind deeds. Since I was born, my family have been holding parties for everyone in the village. I enjoy the parties because they are attended by everyone I know in the village. Although we spend a large amount of money on the feasts, we don’t mind because what we get back is far greater than what we put in. However, our party has gotten smaller recently due to economic recession.

Overall, these two traditions are my favorite ones. Because of them, my family can maintain close relationships with each other and with the villagers. We also learn how important it is to spread happiness to others, especially the poor and suffering.