How Do Koreans Celebrate Seollal (Lunar New Year's Day)?

Seollal (Lunar New Year's Day) is one of the most important holidays in Korea. It's a 3-days holiday including the days before and after Seollal. Let's take a closer look to this Korean family tradition which Park Si Hoo is enjoying with his family now.

Seollal (Lunar New Year; January 1 of the lunar calendar) is one of the most celebrated national holidays in Korea. This year, Seollal falls on January 31 of the Gregorian calendar. More than just a holiday to mark the beginning of a new year, Seollal is truly a special occasion for Korean people. Not only is it a time for paying respect to ancestors, but it is also an opportunity to catch up with distant family members who travel home to get together for this special occasion.

During Seollal, Koreans traditionally wear hanbok (traditional clothes), perform ancestral rites, play folk games, eat traditional foods, listen to stories, and catch up with one another.

Seollal demands a lot of preparation, especially in terms of gifts, traveling, and food. As there are many things to purchase for the ancestral rites and gifts, it is usually very crowded in department stores and markets during the days leading up to Seollal. The foods for ancestral rites are prepared with a variety of wild herbs, meat, fish, and fruits all chosen with great attention paid to the quality of shape, color, and freshness.

Another crucial part of preparing for Seollal, especially for those far from home, is travel arrangements. Many people live away from their family home because of their job, marriage, or for studying and travel great distances to celebrate Seollal with their families. So, they all try to book a bus, train, or plane tickets at the same time, which makes ticket reservations very difficult. Meanwhile, traveling by car during the holiday season can take more than two to four times the standard travel time due to heavy traffic on the roads. For this reason, real-time reports of highway traffic conditions during Seollal can be heard on the radio. 

As most people are trying to leave big cities to visit their families in their hometown, a recent trend has developed where more parents are visiting their children living in the larger cities as it is more convenient and less crowded.
Either way, the journey home during Seollal can be just as exciting as it is stressful.

Seollal gifts vary each year depending on economic situations and gift trends, but the most popular gifts are department store gift cards and cash. Popular gifts for parents are ginseng, honey, health products, and massage chairs. Other common gifts include toiletries such as shampoo, soap, toothpaste, etc. and gift baskets/sets composed of Spam, tuna, hangwa (traditional sweets and cookies), dried fish or fruits.

On the day before Seollal, family members gather together to prepare the holiday food. The dishes needed for the ancestral rites must be prepared with care, not only made to taste good, but also to look good. Seollal’s most important food is tteokguk, but 20 other dishes such as wild vegetables, Korean-style pancakes, various types of fish, galbijjim (rib stew), japchae (noodles with meat and vegetables)—and more!—are specially prepared in order to perform the ancestral rites. To cook all this food requires long hours of work, and this reality has brought rise to the term ‘명절 증후군’ (‘holiday syndrome’). Unlike the men of the family, the women work all day long preparing holiday food. After having to do this every year, during every holiday season, women have been showing symptoms such as headaches, backaches, and other physical pains associated with the holiday season.

Gaining considerable popularity is the idea that holidays should be even more family-centered and less stress for the women. As a result, more and more families are dividing the responsibilities for food preparations and asking each family member to bring a dish to share. Shops are also buying into this time-saving concept and offering a variety of holiday cooking services. If you order in advance, your holiday dishes can be delivered to your home on the day of Seollal or the day before the actual holiday. Prices range between ￦200,000 and ￦300,000. Prepared meals have become the preferred “cooking method” for young housewives; at least, those who can afford it!

On the morning of Seollal, people get up early to get ready and dress up by putting on their ‘Seolbim’ (brand-new clothes prepared especially for Seollal). Seollal is one of the few times when you can expect to see some people wearing Hanbok, the traditional clothing of Korea. After getting ready, the family gathers together to perform the ancestral rites, paying their respects to their ancestors by offering food. According to Korean belief, the spirits of the ancestors return to enjoy the holiday food set out for them. As another sign of respect, an ancestral tablet is placed on the ritual table along with all the dishes and drinks. The ancestral rites also symbolize the descendants’ prayers for a good new year. 

After the rites have been performed, everyone shares the holiday food. Tteokguk, made of beef broth and thinly sliced tteok (chewy rice cakes), is found on all Seollal tables, without exception. According to tradition, eating tteokguk on Seollal adds one year to your age. Children sometimes even ask each other ‘how many servings of tteokguk did you have?’ as a fun way to ask each other’s age.

After finishing their meal, the younger generations pay their respects to the elders of the family by bowing to them. The elders offer their blessings by saying things like ‘have a healthy year’ or ‘meet someone nice’ and give the young people 세뱃돈 (‘New Year’s money’) as a gift. Much like Christmas, many young children wait excitedly forSeollal just because of this Seollal present.

Lately, an increasing number of Christian families are choosing not to perform the ancestral rites due to their religious beliefs. Instead, their family gathers to share food and stories, and spend quality time together.

Seollal is an opportunity for the entire family to engage in fun activities together. The most common activity is yutnori, a board game that involves throwing four wooden sticks. This game is so easy to learn that all family members, regardless of age, can enjoy playing in teams and making fun bets. Besides yutnori, such traditional games as jegi-chagi (footbag-like game), neol-twiggi (see-saw), tuho (arrow toss), and yeon-naligi (kite flying) are also widely played at parks. Finally, families wind down by going to see a movie or watching Seollal specials on TV.

After performing the traditional Seollal activities at one’s husband’s parents’ house, the party moves to the wife’s parents’ house the day after Seollal. It has become a general practice to visit both in-laws during Seollal and to pay respects, in equal measure, at both homes.

The year 2014 is referred to as "Gaponyeon" or "The Year of the Horse." The horse is the seventh in the group of twelve guardian animal deities collectively known as the Sibijisin, which literally means "twelve (sibi) gods of the earth (jisin)."

People born in the year of the horse are said to be open-minded and have a cheerful disposition with a good sense of humor. They are likely to achieve success in any activities they undertake. However, they can be somewhat self-centered and must beware of trifling away money on pleasures.

Happy New Year!

Sources: English Visit Korea, Visit Korea
Credit photos - Google Images