Food and Drink

As in many Asian countries, Korea uses both the solar and lunar calendars, and celebrates holidays based on both. The country uses one time zone and is 9 hours ahead of GMT, the same as Japan. Most Koreans work Monday through Friday and then a half day on Saturday mornings. Usual business hours are 9:00-6:00 during the week and 9:00-1:00 on Saturday. During national holidays, government offices and most businesses are closed, although many private store keepers and large department stores may remain open. The major exceptions occur during the 3-day holidays for the Lunar New Year (Seol-nal) and Harvest Moon Festival (Chuseok) when just about everything shuts down except public transportation.