(Very) Korean Lunar New Year
Hey SophieSquad all over the world,
새해 복 많이 받으세요 ! Happy Lunar New Year !
Korean Lunar New Year, or 설날 (Seollal) in Korea, is one of the most important national holidays and a celebration that marks the first day of the Lunar New Year in Korea. Seollal actually is one particular day which is the first day of the lunar calendar, but people in Korea take two more days off (a day before and after) for celebration, so it is a 3-day holiday and falls from January 31st to February 2nd, this year.
Then, what do Koreans do to celebrate this special day of a fresh start ?
First, we surely can’t skip any part of FOOD.
Koreans are all about what they eat. Even their casual greetings include “have you eaten today?” Or “how are you eating these days?”. And of course, their goodbye msg also includes something like “let’s eat together, sometime later.”. That’s how serious they are about what they eat. So for New Year, they will NEVER go less but maybe to the fullest.
Seollal food differs by family, but the most common varieties include meat, seafood, fruit, vegetables, and maybe liquors for Cha-rye which is a traditional ritual of ancestor reverence (and I know.. they’re basically everything). One thing that everyone has to have for sure is 떡국 Tteok-guk, or rice cake soup, and some families add dumplings too. Anyways, with or without dumplings, Tteok-guk carries a significant meaning in Seollal, because everyone believes having a bowl of ddeok-guk gets you one year older. (Don’t take it seriously though ! It’s just a tradition.)
Next, as mentioned before, we have Cha-rye which is a highly structured Korean ritual of ancestor reverence. As a tradition, Koreans believe that their ancestors visit them on Seollal. So we prepare food for them so that we can pay tribute to our ancestors. We also visit the graves of our ancestors on that day.
Lastly, one of the most important Seollal rituals and Korean kids’ favorite one, Sae-bae.
Seollal is not only for the ancestors. In fact, it is children’s favorite day because they participate in the Sae-baeritual which involves bowing to the older generation in the family to show respect. As a response, elders will often speak words of blessing and give out envelopes that have Sae-bae-don or bowing money in them (and i’m pretty sure now you see why they like Seollal so much ).
(Please kindly take this digital Sae-bae-don image we prepared!)
bySophie team hopes you spend the best Lunar New Year day and have a prosperous year around, this year. And again, 새해 복 많이 받으세요 !
