Well everything is different over here as we all are aware. North Korea joined in Lunar New Year celebrations beginning with a traditional show of loyalty for the country’s former leaders.

The beginning of the Lunar Calendar is celebrated as “Korean New Year” and is one of the most significant traditional holidays. Korean New Year is generally the same day as Chinese New Year, except when new moon occurs between 15:00 UTC (Korean midnight) and 16:00 UTC (Chinese midnight).

As much as the celebrations are pretty gregarious and enjoyable throughout these 3 days where the government servants are given their only holidays of the year, it sure is difficult for us to get in and experience it all.

Citizens laid flowers and bowed at the foot of giant statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il which stand on Mansu Hill, overlooking the capital of Pyongyang. It’s a ritual all over the country for people to give shows of respect to portraits and statues of the Kims on any major anniversary or public holiday.