Happy 25th or 27th, your call.

Unlike last year when I went panicky on how to go about in celebrating my birthday outside the country for the first time, I was more willing to let my 25th year on earth today pass by just like any ordinary day. I wasn’t as excited as how I would normally be, recalling the 23 times that I have celebrated it in the Philippines. And I have my reasons: (1) instant pre-occupation with life and work in South Korea, and (2) acceptance of the difference in birthday norms here and my home country.

I remember sharing my February-4 birthday last year with my male housemate, lucky that the moon told him to take that date, too. For this year though, my housemate’s birthday has moved away to a later date, which I think as of writing, he still has not quite figured out when.

Especially with the elderly Korean male population, their birthdays are not really fixed because they adhere to the Chinese lunar calendar. It basically follows a very complex calculation of the movement of the earth and the moon. As for those who have long spared themselves of further complications, they have stuck to the sun’s steadier position, and basically follow what is more commonly known as the Gregorian calendar in determining their birthdays.

One thing with lunar calendars and birthdays is they have a seemingly discomforting way of speeding up the most common way the human race measures time: AGE. I am now 27 years old, when I could’ve just been on to the momentous “QUARTER-of-a-LIFE” age of 25.

Anyway, here’s a website that performs the instant calculations for your lunar birthday and age, even before you actually consider going to your rooftop tonight to ponder under the moon:

Chinese Lunar Calendar

My birthday this year apparently falls on a weekday so it was business as usual. I have nevertheless set a dinner with my housemates the other day-- just one of the very few times when I can gather all four of us. I already had Baskin Robbins in mind for my ice cream cake, and the brand has a store which is just a few walks away from the apartment where we live. As for the main dish, I have left it all up to the very efficient delivery system in South Korea to worry about. So came dinner time, we decided on ordering 보쌈, which is a type of 'ssam' in Korean cuisine. Steamed pork is wrapped in leafy vegetables like lettuce or cabbage, where the pork is usually dipped first in 'ssamjang', and mixed with other side dishes like onion or kimchi.

Fact is, birthdays are more of a big deal for Filipinos, being the occasions-freak that we are. It's always been a way to get together and have fun. Friends back home would sure have bugged for a treat, so I really found it cute when my male housemate said in a seemingly worried tone how I might have splurged so much for my birthday dinner treat. Nah, for the love of the occasion and for my love for them as my second family, there really are no qualms on flooding them with meat and sweets!!!