California celebrated its first-ever Kimchi Day on Monday with a festival.
Great gut health: Led by Assemblymember Steven Choi, the Golden State passed a resolution on Aug. 23 to designate Nov. 22 as Kimchi Day to honor its growing Korean population, according to Korea.net.
- Choi said the Koreans living in California amounted to 32% of the total number of Koreans in the U.S.
- The numerical version of the date signifies the 11 main ingredients included in the probiotic-filled side dish and the 22 health benefits it gives, according to ABC 7.
- The date coincides with the exact one used in South Korea.
- “Kimchi is symbolic of Korea,” Dr. Park Chae-lin, Chief Researcher of the World Institute of Kimchi in Gwangju, told BBC. “One can see it on every meal table throughout the day.”
- The fermented dish is so rooted within the community that in 2013, UNESCO added gimjang, the act of kimchi-making specifically in the winter months, to its Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list.
- The Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Los Angeles and the Korean Good Global Association hosted and livestreamed a kimchi festival to celebrate the occasion.
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