What is Seollal? How We Spent Our Lunar New Year
Lunar New Year, the first day of the year on the lunar calendar, is celebrated in many Asian countries. The date usually falls in January or February, this year falling in mid-February. In Korea, the day is called Seollal (설날). Although Seollal itself is just one day, in Korea typically the day before and the day after also are public holidays. This is one of the most important holidays of the year, and traditionally families travel to their hometown to be together for this day.
As with all holidays over the past year, Seollal traditions were disrupted in 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns. Many fewer Koreans traveled to be with their families, and festivals were canceled. However, we donned our masks and found a way to participate in a Korean cultural experience to mark the day. With friends, we visited the Korean Folk Village in Yongin, just south of Seoul.
Important Seollal Traditions
A central ritual for celebrating Seollal is sebae (세배), in which younger people deeply bow to their elders with their hands on the ground and wish them a new year. They often wear hanbok, traditional Korean clothing, while participating in this ritual. The traditional new year’s greeting is saehae bok mani badeuseyo (새해 복 많이 받으세요), which means ‘Have lots of luck in the new year.’ Elders then traditionally give youngsters money in an envelope as their new year’s gift.
Food also has importance during this holiday. Some families celebrate charye at Seollal, the rite of honoring one’s ancestors with a lavish table of food. Evidently, this practice is much more common during the fall holiday, Chuseok, but may be celebrated at Seollal. The most common new year’s foods in Korea are tteokguk (떡국), a soup made with meat broth, seaweed, and sliced rice cake, and jeon (전), an egg pancake made with green onion, kimchi, or seafood. All of these dishes are quite tasty and are widely available in Korea also at other times of the year.
The tradition associated with tteokguk is especially interesting, as consuming a bowl of this soup marks each South Korean’s lunar calendar birthday. Although official documents will be marked with a person’s “international age” (the age they turn on their actual birthday), by tradition South Koreans turn a year older not on their date of birth but on Seollal, marking their “Korean age.” Unfortunately for those wanting to stay younger or get older, eating or not eating a bowl of tteokguk will not actually impact the age you get to turn!
Korean Folk Village
There are many folk villages in Korea, but this one in Yongin is a quick, easy drive from Seoul, making it a very convenient day trip from the city. Fun fact for anyone who’s into K-dramas: this village was used as a set to film many scenes from the very popular Korean zombie drama, Kingdom (킹덤), which is set during the Joseon Dynasty. On Seollal, the folk village hosted no zombies (we’re pretty sure), but it was busy with plenty of visitors and lots of vendors making and selling traditional Korean handcrafts.
Strolling through the village is intended to take visitors back to the late days of the Joseon Dynasty, with representative homes and buildings from different economic classes and parts of the country reconstructed in one park.
The young (and young at heart), may enjoy visiting the local jail, complete with some gruesome torture devices for those who wish to encourage their friends to tell the truth. Or you can pretend be the magistrate for a day and mete out justice as you see fit. Let’s hope you all would be benevolent rulers!
Folk Celebrations
Of the folk village’s many interesting features, perhaps the most memorable were the traditional music and folk dancing. Several times each day, the main stage hosts a different traditional performance. Some dances were beautiful, and some were meant to be comical. In each case, the performers were impressive and entertaining!
The performances included traditional mask dances, fan dances, and pungmullori, which can be translated as “farmer’s music.” It combines music, dance, and acrobatics and is characterized by the use of drums. If you’re interested in seeing part of these performances, please click on the links below. I think the pungmullori performance is particularly engaging. I could have watched it all day!
The Year of the Ox
In Asian astrology, the twelve signs of the zodiac are represented by twelve different animals. For each year of the lunar calendar, one animal in the cycle is assigned to represent that year. Legend has it that a great race once determined the rank of each animal, now the order that is used to cycle through the twelve signs over each twelve-year period: the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
2021 is the year of the Ox, an animal representing diligence, honesty and patience. Its year is supposed to be characterized by peace and leisure. The ox is also important in Korean history for its important role in agriculture and as a food source. According to one Korean proverb, there is nothing to waste from an ox except for its yawn!
We appreciated starting our Lunar New Year with a great opportunity to learn more about Korean folk culture. Wishing everyone a year filled with moments of peace and leisure!
To see more photos of the Korean Folk Village, please visit our Flickr page.
