Koreans love bbq and especially samgyupsal or pork belly. Why not a day to celebrate it! The word for pork belly in Korean is samgyopsal which literally translates to three layers of fat in culture. In South Korea, the third day of March is "Samgyeopsal Day", due to samgyeopsal's three-layered composition. According to a 2006 survey by National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, 85% of South Korean adults stated that their favorite slice of pork is the pork belly. So on the 3rd day of the 3rd month of the year, Koreans celebrate samgyupsal day.
There is a myth in South Korea that eating Samgyeopsal protects humans from air pollution by particulates (sometimes translated as fine dust 미세먼지 in Korean). This is thought to have originated from the practice of Korean miners eating pork after an intensive mining operation. Contrary to the myth, samgyeopsal can rather help the absorption of chemicals in the particulates that are soluble in oil.
In 1980s, the main type of meat the Koreans preferred was beef, but pork and chicken meat were encouraged at a national policy level as a good alternative as most of the cattle were used for agriculture and thus beef supplies were deficient. In response to government policies, chaebols, especially Samsung, started to run pork farms Samsung later shut down the farms due to backlash from farmers worried that Samsung was attempting real estate speculation.
Written by: Khadija Naveed from Pakistan
