Smart Girls Understand: Korean Lunar New Year
Korean Lunar New Year, or 설날 (Seollal) is the Korean version of Chinese New Year. It is celebrated at the same time as Chinese New Year (except for a rare case every several years where they fall a day apart) and, as the name indicates, is dependent on the lunar calendar. This year, Chinese New Year and Korean Lunar New Year fall on February 8. Although Korean Lunar New Year shares similarities with new year’s celebrations in countries like Vietnam and China, it holds its own singularities too.
South Koreans* celebrate Lunar New Year for three days: the actual day of Lunar New Year, which falls on the day of the second new moon after winter solstice, the day before and the day after. Seollal is one of the busiest domestic travel times of the year: the nation’s highways turn into a traffic nightmare as tens of millions of people head to their hometowns at the same time by car or by bus. Think Thanksgiving traffic in North America, but worse.
Families typically celebrate the holiday by gathering together and preparing large amounts of food. Koreans who are traveling home to their family often bring gifts for the relatives hosting them, and gifts of food are popular. Cases of fruit, “sets” of sauces or other special food items such as Spam (sounds strange as a gift, but Spam’s been popular in Korea ever since the Korean War!) are common gifts. Each family tends to hold their own traditions of what to eat. Jeon, a savory Korean pancake, is a common new year’s dish. One particularly special dish: ddeokguk, or rice cake soup is linked to an interesting Seollal practice.
Lunar New Year & Korean Age
Koreans count age a bit differently than other parts of the world. Once you are born, according to Korean culture, you are already a year old. Although one’s day of birth is celebrated each year, Lunar New Year marks a traditional celebration of growing a year older. (Nowadays Koreans acknowledge their new age starting from Solar New Year, Jan 1.) Ddeokguk, the rice cake soup, is part of the new year, new age celebration. Everyone eats the soup together, symbolically becoming a year older after the soup is finished. Amazing!
Other Traditions
Some wear colorful traditional Korean clothes, called hanbok, at least once during Seollal, but the custom is much less common today than even a few decades ago. Same goes for the ancestral ritual of charye. To honor familial ancestors, families prepare a large meal and assemble an altar complete with candles and other relics. Some families practice this during Seollal (and periodically throughout the year), but this formality is becoming a less popular tradition as families have spread out and become busier.
In the tradition of sehbeh children wish their elder relatives (parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles) a happy new year by performing a deep bow and reciting a greeting that their elders “receive a lot of luck in the New Year.” Kids young and old can then present their relatives with a silken, embroidered pouch to receive a gift of money. It’s still common for young children under the age of 8 or so to wear hanbok for sehbeh greetings.
(When I taught at a private kindergarten in South Korea, students performed sehbeh in their hanbok for the school’s director who gave them some sweets in return. And then the kids took a slew of pictures to send home to mom and dad.)
2016: The Year of the Monkey
Following the 12 signs of the Chinese Zodiac, Koreans will ring in the Year of the Monkey in 2016. Each of the 12 animal symbols are thought to bring a unique fortune for the years they represent. For example, children born during the Year of the Monkey are believed to be confident, energetic and creative. Because of the characteristics of the monkey sign, 2016 may be a better year to make investments, have a child or get married. Much like in Western culture, some people put more stock into astrology and the signs of the zodiac than others. Buddhist Koreans may follow the zodiac more seriously, but for others it is more of a symbol of tradition.
To celebrate 2016, some holiday displays outside of office buildings and shopping malls might use monkeys in their decor. Cards and gift wrapping for Seollal gifts might also feature depictions of monkeys.
If you were born in 1980, 1992 or 2004, this is your year, you mischievous creature! Happy Lunar New Year!
*What about North Korea? Observance of Lunar New Year was forbidden for much of the country’s history. However, the late Kim Jong-il tried to revive the holiday in 1989, and it has been celebrated annually since. Though several traditions overlap between the two states, the traditions noted here refer specifically to practices in South Korea.
Featured image by Dan Mooney
Other images courtesy of friends of the author
