BTS' RM turns 28 as per Korean age: What is Korean age and how to calculate it? Explained

South Korean band BTS has become one of the most popular bands in the world, churning out hits and millions of views, and its members too are in the news regularly. One such popular member of the band is RM, who makes headlines not just for his singing and music, but also his looks, having entered a '100 Most Handsome Faces' list too. The youngster celebrates his birthday on Sunday and sent out his gratitude to his fans for the wishes. 

An interesting part about the singer's tweet was that he mentioned that it was his 28th birthday, though he turns 27. That is because all South Koreans follow a unique age system, where all have two different ages, one the international age and the other the Korean age.

RM turns 28 as per Korean age: What is the Korean Age and how to calculate it?

RM was born on September 12, 1994. He turns 27 on Sunday and one might be curious about why he mentioned his '28th birthday.' As per Korean age, it was not on Sunday, but January 1, 2021 that he turned 28.

Here's how the Korean age works:

In South Korea, when a baby is born, the baby turns 1. Though there is no confirmed theory for this custom, one theory takes into consideration one year, rounded from nine months, that the baby spent in the mother's womb. Another theory links it to a traditional Asian numbering system, where there was no 0.

On the next January 1, the baby turns 2. And every year henceforth, another year gets added to the baby's age on January 1.

So a baby born on December 31, will turn 2 within hours of his/her birth, though he/she might not have completed even a day of birth.

There is once again no clear answer to the reasons for following the custom. One theory links it to ancient Koreans following the Chinese 60-year-cycle, where people used to add a year to their age on Lunar New Year and not on a particular date as such, with lack of regular calendars also being a likely cause. As the Koreans then started adopting the Western calendar, it's likely that instead of the Lunar New Year, they started doing it on the first day of the calendar, January 1.

So RM turned 1 on September 12, 1994 and 2 on January 1, 1995 and henceforth added one year every year on the first day of the year, thus, turning 28 on January 1, 2021. So, though RM was 26, by the Western calendar, on January 1, 2021, he will mention his Korean age as two years more, 28 and after Sunday, though his age is 27, his Korean age will be one year more than his actual age. 

In other words, your Korean age will be 2 years more than your age till you celebrate your birthday that year, and will be 1 year more after you celebrate your birthday that year.

A simple formula to calculate the Korean age is to subtract the year of birth from the current year and add 1.