Seollal, Korean New Year’s Day, is one of the biggest national holidays that celebrate the first day of a year. It is based on the lunar calendar and differs slightly each year. This year, the day falls on February 12 by the solar calendar. Koreans perform ancestral rites in the morning of the day and pay visits to their elders and relatives to give their New Year’s bows. Also, they make various dishes to do the rites and greet their visitors. Tteokguk(Sliced Rice Cake Soup) is a dish that represents this big day of the year. That is why there is a saying that, when you eat one bowl of Tteokguk on that day, you become a year older after the day. On or around the first day, Koreans enjoy various traditional plays such as yut-nori(four-stick game), neolttwigi(jumping game similar to see-sawing), and kite-flying. Let's learn about some unique Korean cultures on New Year’s Day.

#Seolbim, New Year’s Dress
When a new year comes, most Koreans put on new clothes after a bath, which is called “seolbim”. This is to greet a new year with a pure soul before their ancestors and elders. Seolbim depends on the ages and circumstances. Traditionally, those who are well off buy a new suit of clothes. But, others who are not buy a pair of traditional Korean socks at least. Koreans dress their children in colorful and bright-colored clothes, wishing for them to grow bright and successful.

#Sebae, Bows for Good Health and Happiness
On the morning of the first day of a new year, Koreans perform a rite for their ancestors. They set the tables for the rites and wish for peace and happiness for their families in front of their ancestors. After the rite, they bow to their parents or elder members of their families. Some visit teachers or elders they respect to give greetings for the new year. The New Year’s bow is an act of kneeling and lowering their heads with their body bent to show their respect. The elders who receive the bows give cash gifts or words of blessing to the youngers in return.

#Tteokguk, Soup for Health and Financial Fortune
How to make the tables for the rites on New Year’s Day differs from family to family. However, they observe a common tradition of eating tteokguk in Korean. Eating one bowl of Tteokguk means growing a year older. Stick-like long rice cake, or garaetteok in Korean, which is a main ingredient for the soup, connotes a long life without diseases and financial fortune extending like the long rice cake. During the late Goryeo Dynasty, Koreans added pheasant meat to the soup, but ordinary people at that time could not afford to buy pheasants. So, they added a chicken instead of a pheasant, from which the famous Korean saying, “a chicken instead of a pheasant”(means similarly to “if you can’t get a horse, ride a cow”), came.

#Bokjori, Lucky Bag full of New Year’s Blessings
Koreans have the tradition of hanging a strainer that is made with woven thin strips of bamboo high on a wall early in the morning on New Year’s Day. A strainer is originally a kitchen utensil used to sift grits out when cooking rice and is thus used as a good luck charm to scoop up all the lucks of a year to come. It is also originated from the wish for abundant food throughout the year.

#Folk Games with Special Meanings
On New Year’s Day, Korean ancestors did various traditional plays such as yut-nori, neolttwigi, and kite-flying to strengthen their bonds with others. Yut-nori has not its accurate origin, but is said to be played to wish for a good harvest. Neolttwigi is believed to be started from women who had lived behind a wall or fence all year round and desired to see the world outside. Kite-flying is making a kite, and flying the kite with the wind while adjusting the string connected to the kite. It is said to be played to let bad luck fly off.

#Magpie’s New Year’s Day, One Day Before Seollal
The eve of New Year’s Day is called “Magpie’s New Year’s Day” in Korea. It is backed by an old saying that, when an(oriental) magpie cries, a welcome guest would come. Since family members, relatives, or friends who live away are all get together on New Year’s Day, they think there would be constant cries of magpies foretelling the arrival of the welcome guests on the day before the big day. There is even a children’s song entitled “Magpie Magpie New Year”, a song that comes to mind first when it comes to New Year’s Day.