Traditions of Seolnal

Seolnal is one of the two major Korean holidays, the other being Chusok (Harvest Moon Festival). Korean New Year is actually the Lunar New Year which is often refered to as the Chinese New Year. During this 3-day holiday, it is obligatory to travel to one's hometown and visit relatives, bringing expensive gifts of food and drink. Many Koreans dress up in hanbok, the traditional Korean clothing. The children and grandchildren perform a ritual called "saebae" in which they bow deeply to their elders as a sign of respect and say "saehae bok manhi badeseyo" (literally: "receive a lot of New Year's luck!") If they do a good job, they are rewarded with envelopes of money. On Seolnal all Korean's eat ddeok-guk, pronounced duck-gook which is rice cake soup. The soup is made by diagonally slicing rice cakes into thin, oval slices. The rice cake slices are soaked in water, then boiled in beef broth. The soup is garnished with chives, seaweed, and egg and is eaten for good luck in the New Year. My favorite thing about being in Korea during Seolnal was getting to see Korean people all dressed up in the traditional clothing, Hanbok. Here are some pictures of what it looks like. It's so beautiful!

This last picture is of my friend Hannah who is Korean-Canadian but moved to Korea to teach and got married here. She had a Western stype wedding and also a Korean style wedding. This picture was taking at her Korean wedding. Isn't it beautiful?