Lunar New Year 2009
Today marks the onset of the lunar new year (called 설날; Seollal here in Korea). Considered one of the most important traditional celebrations, the government has made the occasion a three-day national holiday. This year the lunar new year falls on a Monday, which means we only get an additional two days off, but a four-day weekend is still much appreciated.
As a celebration of the new year there are a few important events that take place during 설날. One of these is eating rice cake soup - 떡국; ddeokguk - to grow one year older. The importance placed on eating 떡국 is so strong that a common, indirect way to ask someone's age in days past was to question them on how many bowls of rice cake soup they'd had in their life, as traditionally this was seen as the only way to get older. I already had 떡국 during my trip to Ulsan for the solar new year and plan to have more tomorrow, so it looks like I'm going to age a little faster than usual this year. For anyone interested in making it for themselves there's a nice recipe posted online at the (sadly) now-defunct My Korean Kitchen.
Another event that takes place on the lunar new year is 세배 (sebae), the traditional practice of bowing to pay respect to one's parents and grandparents. There's a prescribed ritual for how the bow is meant to be done that varies between boys and girls -- you can see a photolog comparing the two forms through cgfeel's Daum Cafe. While bowing children will also wish "새해 복 많이 받으세요" (may you receive many blessings of the new year) to their parents in an act of filial piety - 孝 in the context of Confucianism. In return, children receive crisp new money from their parents as a reward for their piety and as a blessing for the new year, thus creating a harmonious relationship of respect from one side and reward from the other. Or that's the ideal anyway.
Left: 떡국 from albedo3. Right: 세해 from Yonhap News
In the past parents offered fruits and sweet cakes (떡) after 세배, but that tradition has now been replaced with envelopes of money instead. This new format is reminiscent of the red envelopes given out in ethnically Chinese regions, but the two don't appear to be related.
Another common activity one sees during the lunar new year is the traditional board game 윷 (yut). The goal is to get your four pieces around the board before your opponent(s) using a set of marked sticks to determine your movement. After throwing the sticks in the air you are allowed to move based on how many sticks are facing either up or down, which leads to players from both sides shouting out the desired combination that would most help their team. I played at the academy director's house last night - along with his wife, brother, sister-in-law, and parents - and our games turned into a somewhat noisy affair. I think most of the commotion came from his parents teasing each other during the game, plus the fact that the winners would receive 20,000 Won from the losing side. Also interesting is the following quote from Wikipedia:
Each station of the game board has its own name, although they are obscure to most Koreans. It is thought that the outer stations symbolize heaven, and the inner square, the earth. The whole board can be interpreted as a reflection of universal symmetry and celestial procession, reflecting elements of Korean Taoism.
During my first year in Korea the natural assumption among my friends and coworkers was that I had never experienced any of the events that surround the lunar new year here. While it's true that the Chinese aspects of the holiday receive a much greater emphasis within the United States - to the point where people refer to the event as Chinese New Year - there are Korean immigrants who have preserved this tradition in their new homes. In fact, four years ago my friend Mimi invited me to participate in the 설날 activities she held at her house, along with a few other expat Korean families she knew. Of course, this is not to say that the average English instructor in Korea has any knowledge about the Korean version of lunar new year before arriving. To help remedy this The Korea Times published an informative piece about the lunar new year on their online site that includes a list of things foreigners can do in Seoul.
The article throws out a brief mention of "charye" but doesn't go into very much detail on the subject. I'd like to write about that tomorrow - technically later today - but it will have to wait for now so I can get a couple hours' rest before breakfast.
새해 복 많이 받으세요!