On March 1, Juche 69 (1980), Chairman Kim Jong Il had a talk with officials and asked them what day today is.

The officials did not answer, looking at each other.

The Chairman said with a broad smile on his face that today is the January 15th of the lunar calendar. Only then, the officials came to thought that the Korean ancestors had celebrated the January 15th of the lunar calendar as a great holiday.

He offered the officials the taffy he brought with him, explained in detail about the traditional customs related to the lunar New Year's Day.

He told that the Korean ancestors created superior and excellent folk traditions not only in holidays such as the lunar New Year's Day but also in working, cultural, clothing, food, housing and moral life.

Then he stressed that the folk traditions, created and maintained by the ancestors through generations, reflect the noble thoughts, feelings, etiquette and unique lifestyle of the Korean people and the peculiar tastes and characteristics of our nation, saying that if we abandon the folk customs, we can lose the nation.

Looking up to him, the officials came to keenly realize the truth that the folklore is not merely social conditions or customs of a nation and it is associated with the spirit and soul of the nation and its peculiar nature and history and that there will be no nation without folklore. -0-