Abundant Toilet Paper yields Abundant and Long Life

Korea has a beautiful gift-giving culture (as well as a not so beautiful side of gift-giving and consumerism, but that's not the focus of this article). The moment one arrives in Korea, they are showered with various gifts. Drinks, snacks, free colas at a restaurant, fruits and chocolates from co-workers, just to name a few. The moment one invites a few co-workers into their home is when the real fun and gift-giving occurs.

Early this week, the Harrington's hosted a Thanksgiving Dinner for their co-teachers. The first three to enter came with two giant packs of toilet paper (toilet paper with an inlay of puppies and a scent of plumeria). This was then added to the stack of toilet paper received from an expat couple who'd crashed the Harrington's couch in October plus the t.p. purchased upon the Harrington's arrival, needless to say, the Harrington's are not lacking in toilet paper.

Other gifts from the evening included
bananas, mini-apples, a mini-Christmas tree and three lovely cactus. Hosting Koreans for dinner has some beautiful payoffs aside from the pleasure of good food and enjoyable company.

A friend of the Harrington's mentioned the purpose in toilet paper being related to a long and prosperous life. With a little bit of research and investigating, the Harrington Time's was able to discover a bit more on this tradition. According to http://www.ehow.com/ toilet paper is given as a gift because "it unrolls cleanly and smoothly for a long time, offering wishes for the lives of the homeowners to do the same." Read more on the giving of toilet paper and other common housewarming gifts here.