New Year celebrations in East Asia vary by country. Although Japan follows the date of the Gregorian calendar on January 1, China celebrates the Chinese New Year between the end of January and February based on the lunar calendar. This year, Chinese New Year will fall on February 6th. However, South Korea combines the best of both worlds with two separate but similar New Year celebrations.
For Koreans, New Year’s Day, commonly known as Seollal, occurs twice a year. One occurs on the first day of the year in the lunar calendar and the other on January 1 in the Gregorian calendar. The Korean Lunar New Year is a three-day celebration to return home and visit the extended family, along with holding ceremonies to honor your ancestors. Based on the lunar calendar, the lunar Seollal it is usually celebrated on the same day as the Chinese New Year.
Although the Chinese New Year has maintained a strong tradition in China, lunar holidays have been celebrated inconsistently on the Korean peninsula. In North Korea, the lunar new year was abolished in 1953 after the Korean War and did not recover until 1967. It was designated a three-day holiday in 2003. Similarly, South Korea left the lunar New Year after the Korean War, as it affected taxes and was seen as a direct result of Chinese influence. Despite the lack of official recognition, many families continued to celebrate Seollal and perform related rituals based on the first day of the lunar calendar. In 1985, the Korean government recognized these celebrations with a holiday, “Folklore Day.” Four years later, the government replaced Folklore Day with the reinstatement of Lunar New Year’s Day, which it officially named a three-day holiday.
The western calendar Seollal it was commonly called Yaang-rek-soul after its introduction during the Japanese occupation in the 20th century. After the declaration of the three-day vacation, January 1 on the Gregorian calendar became a more casual vacation spent with the immediate family. Similar to Christmas cards in the United States, families will send New Year’s greeting cards (Yeon-ha-jhang). January 1 also deserves a widespread celebration as it sounds like everyone’s birthdays. Regardless of the actual date of birth, all Koreans make one more year on January 1st. This comes from a combination of the importance of age and collectivity in Korean society, where age determines the relational social hierarchy. Koreans also celebrate individual birthdays, so the collective New Year’s anniversary has become more symbolic.
Many Korean families gather a celebrate both Seollals as a family-oriented vacation, full of food, gifts and quality time with the extended family. January 1 on both calendars is a particularly auspicious day, as it makes resolutions with immediate effect and represents the type of year you want to have. If you want to eat healthier in the new year, eat as healthy as possible on January 1 (but allowing clemency for parties). This can also include having the best behavior, being respectful and kind, staying safe and avoiding recklessness, and even wearing new clothes. To show generosity, the hosts will feed all the guests in the most common way Seollal food.
Food is one of the most important and symbolic traditions of Seollal. Korean rice cakes, or tteok, are usually thin, long rolls of glutinous rice that are cut into smaller slices. Tteok is known for both its length and its adhesiveness, which mean longevity and the desire for good fortune, money, health and happiness to “stick” to you in the new year. Tteok it can be eaten in a traditional soup, called tteokguk.
Rice Cake Soup, tteokguk, a common food in Seollal. Photo: Flickr / sunxez
Korean tteok is not specific to Seollal, and takes so many forms and types that there is a dedicated one Tteok Museum in Seoul. Tteok it is also eaten to get lucky at other times of the year, even before the school proficiency test (CSAT). The CSAT is known to determine which university a student will attend and some students eat tteok the morning of the exam so that the knowledge “stays”.
Other classic Korean foods that are eaten on New Year’s Day include dough balls or mandu. Fent mandu it is a family activity of several days, which consists of preparing its ingredients and wrapping the balls. Mandu fill by itself takes half a day to prepare, incorporating the usual ingredients of ground meat (port or beef), tofu, cabbage and garlic. Over time, families have added their own favorite vegetables, such as mung bean sprouts, zucchini, Chinese chives, and chives, to name a few. Although the homemade process takes a long time mandu packaging is now simplified into commercialized and prefabricated packaging available in Asian supermarkets; This requires making the dough and waiting for it to soften before rolling it into a long tube, cutting it into pieces and rolling it into small, thin circles. Family members, including children, will sit together and place small portions of filling in the center of the dough circles, using egg white to glue the edges and wrap the ball of dough. They are then steamed or the balls are boiled.
While food is always a staple in Korean vacations, Seollal it has specialized rituals. One of the most important is Charye. Charye is performed in Seollal (and also to Chuseok at Autumn) and involves worshiping ancestors by preparing and presenting food at altars for their loved ones. Charye it is held early in the morning and is held at the eldest son’s house.
Sebae it is another specific New Year’s tradition among families, where children bow before all the elderly present, including parents, aunts and uncles and grandparents. This ceremony is then repeated with other elders in the room, so that a child with a large family can bow separately in front of each group of elders. Worship is generational and parents bow to their own parents.
Sebae he has a exact series of steps which change slightly by gender. First, an elderly person or a couple will sit on the floor or sofa. The child will approach the old man sitting and then recite the same line:Saehae bok manee badesaeyo,Which means “I wish you good luck in the new year.” Then the fence will grab your hands and bring them to your forehead. A male child will place his left hand on the top of his right hand and a boy will place his right hand on the top left. Other variations include the way a female gets on her knees and the degree to which she tilts her head to the ground, both adjusted to fit the dress of the hanbok, a traditional Korean dress.
Completing Sebae in synchronized movements it shows the intentionality of the ritual and a greater respect for the recipient. Once the child rises from the bow, the old man responds with an unwritten combination of wishes for the New Year, including health and happiness, successful efforts, and, in most cases, respect for his elders. Then the old man will present an envelope with cash. Unlike their Chinese counterparts, who give and receive red envelopes to represent good luck, Koreans usually give white envelopes. The amount of cash in a white envelope can vary depending on the age of the child and the relationship of the elder with the child. For example, the older child may receive more money than the younger one and the parents may give him more than the grandparents. White envelopes have an age limit; married couples have yet to act Sebae, but they will no longer receive white envelopes.
While Seollal may have changed over the past century in terms of presence and practice, Koreans have successfully maintained these traditions between the two festivals. Whether celebrated for three days in the heart of Seoul with an extended family or held on Western January 1 in the suburbs of the American Midwest with friends, Seollal is an easily shared extension of Korean culture and its most important aspects: food, customs, and family.