A little late celebration of the new year – the Lunar New Year, Seollal

While many countries around the world feel the new year on New Year's Day, Koreans are still waiting for the day of real celebration, the Lunar New Year.

Lunar New Year, known as Seollal in Korean, is one of the most important holidays in Korea. Every year the date of holidays changes because it is based on the Korean lunar calendar. Usually, it is in early February. The period of the holiday normally lasts for three days, from before the day of the lunar new year to the day after the day of the lunar new year. 

Scenery of the Lunar New Year, Seollal

The reason why I think Seollal is an important holiday in Korea is because it is considered as a time for family, just like Thanksgiving. While the first day of a new year is celebrated with close friends or a day trip for the sunrise, we expect all of our family members to gather in one place later on. People who leave their hometown spend much time on the road to visit their homes. It is quite interesting to see how empty the heart of Seoul is during Seollal. All the people who have come up to this big metropolis for their education, career, and any other bigger dreams go back to where they were from, where they feel like themselves. All the department stores and online shopping malls are busy with promoting products on sale, which people buy for visiting their parents and family back in their hometown. It is a time for foods that are good for your health, like ginseng, to bring gratitude and prosperity back home.

Tteokguk, how we get a year older.

As many holidays are associated with a special food, we have a special food for Seollal too. Tteokguk is anchovy stock based soup made with sliced rice cake. There is an interesting story regarding this soup in Korea, we used to have a unique age system (it has been revised to be just like the international system now and will be in action soon). We become a year older on January 1st, and since the lunar new year is a celebration for the new year, we consider ourselves a year older by having this soup. Believe it or not, in the past, people would ask how many bowls someone had when asking how old they were. So if you have a chance to have Tteokguk during Seollal, make sure to only have one bowl unless you want to get older quickly. 

Korean Traditional Game for the special day, Yunnori

We don’t play a traditional game during Seollal anymore, but Yunnori is still one of the very traditional games in Korea that has continued for 5,000 years. For a big family, or if there are many kids in the family, it might still be a popular game for them. 

The rules of the game are simple. At least two teams throw 4 wooden sticks, which we call Yut. Each team plays with four horses and the way that the sticks land determines how far your horse can go. If all of a team's horses make it around the board and return home, the team wins. Each stick is designed as half of a circle. When each stick is up, it means that you can go one step ahead, but when every stick is face down, it means you can go 5 steps ahead. There is also a fun twist: one stick is marked and when only this stick is up, you have to take a step back. If your horse is about to start but you have this so- called “back-step,” your horse can be put at the finish line and you just need two sticks face-up to win point.

Even though Seollal has many traditions, the main way that we celebrate Seollal today is to have a meal with our families and enjoy our time together. Though we don’t celebrate with all of the traditions as much, Seollal is still considered a very exciting and fun holiday that people truly look forward to!