In Southern Korea an infant is certainly one on the time it really is born, and turns two on New Year’s Day, even though it will be the really following day

When expected their age by a foreigner, numerous South Koreans give both their ‘Korean’ and ‘international’ ages. Photograph: Choi Won-Suk/AFP/Getty Images

Last modified on Sun 2 Jun 2019 16.50 BST

A South Korean MP is trying to overturn a tradition that is centuries-old which every baby turns one at the time they’ve been created as well as 2 regarding the next New Year’s Day.

The unusual custom means a infant created on New Year’s Eve becomes couple of years old when the clock hits midnight.

When expected their age with a foreigner, numerous Southern Koreans give both their “Korean age” and age” that is“international followed closely by a reason that invariably will leave the questioner confused.

The system’s origins are not clear. One theory is the fact that switching a year old at delivery takes into account time invested within the womb – with nine months rounded as much as 12. other people link it to a historical Asian numerical system that didn’t have the idea of zero.

Explanations for the extra 12 months added on 1 January are far more complicated.

Some specialists indicate the idea that find sugar texas ancient Koreans put their 12 months of delivery inside the Chinese calendar that is 60-year, but, at the same time whenever there have been no regular calendars, had a tendency to disregard the time of these delivery and simply added on a complete year regarding the very first time regarding the lunar calendar. The excess 12 months on 1 January became prevalent much more South Koreans began monitoring the western calendar.

Now, however, an MP is wanting to end the tradition, claiming that numerous of his compatriots worry it makes Southern Korea, Asia’s fourth-biggest economy and a worldwide technology giant, appear away from action along with the rest worldwide.

“The biggest issue is that the appropriate age additionally the age utilized in everyday everyday lives are very different,” says Hwang Ju-hong, whom recently introduced a bill that will need the us government to make use of worldwide many years in formal papers and also to encourage individuals to make use of them in everyday activity.

“The worldwide age is employed in courts, hospitals and general general public workplaces, whilst the Korean age can be used in people’s day-to-day lives. The various calculation technique causes lots of confusion and inconvenience.”

Hwang, whom claims to possess extensive help among MPs while the public, said moms and dads with infants created in December stress that their offspring will encounter dilemmas when they mix with kiddies that are actually older and larger but, in Korean terms, will be the exact same age.

“They be worried about the possibility that their infants could be at a drawback at daycare centers for their relatively size that is small” he says, noting that Asia abolished its conventional age system through the Cultural Revolution, while Japan adopted worldwide many years during the early 1900s. North Korea began utilizing international many years in 1985.

The South Korean age system is specially disconcerting for the moms and dads of kiddies created later into the 12 months. Kim Sun-mi, whoever child was created on 30 December year that is last stated she preferred to provide her child’s age in months while she ended up being nevertheless really young.

“I think I’ll begin using her Korean age whenever she develops a bit,” Kim stated. But she thinks its “absurd” that her child celebrated her 2nd birthday just 2 days after she was created. “The Korean age system poses numerous drawbacks for children which are created later on when you look at the year,” she said.

“I also saw some online articles about just just how many people prepare their pregnancies so their babies won’t be born later on into the 12 months. Some people even ‘cheat’ by waiting to register their infants’ birth in January. I really hope the bill will pass.”

Not absolutely all South Koreans concur that the calculation that is traditional anachronistic, arguing so it reflects the value eastern Asian communities put on the lunar calendar, in place of the solar calendar noticed in the west.

“Unifying the age calculation so that it falls on the basis of the age that is international will mean breaking with old-fashioned tips of the time on the basis of the lunar calendar,” said Jang Yoo-seung, a senior researcher at Dankook University’s Oriental Studies analysis Centre.

“Some individuals state it’s the same for international ages that it’s weird for babies born in December to turn two after just a few days, but. An infant created today, and another who had been created a year ago and it arrives to commemorate his / her birthday celebration the next day, have birth times which can be very nearly one year aside, but they’re both ‘zero’ years old.

“Why can’t the age that is korean the worldwide age system coexist, just as that the original lunar brand brand brand new 12 months getaway and Christmas time coexist?”

Seoul resident Kim Yun-soo, whose Korean age is 32, agrees that the alteration really should not be enforced in a misguided try to imitate the western. “The Korean age system arises from recognising enough time infants invest inside their mother’s womb, which can be element of Korea’s conventional culture,” he said.

“I’m maybe maybe maybe not entirely in opposition to utilizing the worldwide age system, but we wonder if it is essential to impose it on individuals.”

Kyungmi Choi in Seoul and Associated Press contributed to the report