Photos by Hyemin Lee ()
In South Korea, Seollal (설날) is the first day of the Lunar New Year. This is the biggest family gathering holiday on the Peninsula, and is celebrated over three days. In 2024, Seollal falls on Feb 10.
The Lunar New Year dates back to Korea’s ancient times and is a holiday where families conduct traditional customs such as ancestral rites, enjoy new year’s food and share wishes of good fortune for the coming year.
Every year I spend Seollal with family members from my dad’s side at my grandmother’s house on a small farm. We are a large family with 30 members, so Seollal is always a busy time full of fun and great food.
Learning about Seollal will give you a glimpse of Korean tradition and culture. Each Korean family may have slightly different version of celebrating Seollal, but my large Lee family keeps with tradition. So, I’d like to show you how Koreans celebrate Seollal by sharing my family’s way!
The day before The day before Seollal, all of my family members gather at my grandmother’s place by noon. The first thing the female members do is head to a local bathhouse to take a long bath with our grandmother. In Korea, we have a saying – clean your body and mind before ancestral rites
In the meantime, my uncles do the grocery shopping, cleaning, and setting up the supplies for the ceremony. When we return from the baths, my mom and aunts start cooking ritual offerings and other festive food. It takes hard work and dedication all day long. Luckily, my aunts are close to each other, so they get along while cooking, but sometimes this part of celebrating Seollal can be a burden for Korean women.
After my uncles and aunts finish all the preparation for the Seollal ceremony, we have a BBQ party and enjoy Korean alcoholic drinks to celebrate the coming together of family. The younger generation – me, my siblings and our cousins – are good friends and love hanging out altogether. We usually play with animals on the farm and explore the countryside until late at night.
The day of Seollal - Ancestral rites (Jesa 제사) On the morning of Seollal, all family members prepare ancestral rites and start the ceremony. This is the most important part of Seollal because it’s the way to remind us where we are from and show respect and gratitude toward our ancestors.
During the ceremony, Koreans pray to our ancestors to bring us good fortune in the new year. The first son takes an important role to lead the whole family, including serving parents and ancestors properly. In my family, my oldest uncle always leads the ceremony as the master of the rites, and my dad and our uncles assist him.
Ancestral ritual foods include rice cake soup, beef soup, marinated pork, baked fish, chicken, fritters, pancakes, seasoned vegetables, fruit, traditional desserts and alcoholic drinks. All the offerings are set on the ritual table and all the doors in the house are open to welcome the spirits’ arrival. My oldest uncle lights incense, an invitation to ancestors from heaven, then kneeling, he bows deeply toward the table twice. The family members participating in the ceremony follow his lead.
To serve the ancestors the food and drinks, a spoon is put in the rice, chopsticks are placed on the food and glasses are filled with premium makgeolli (rice wine) or Soju. My uncles and dad say: “We prepare all the food you like, so please enjoy it,” as if they’re talking to our ancestors. Koreans believe when we sincerely serve our ancestors, they will bring us good fortune.
After the ceremony and huge feast, all the male members of my family head to the mountain where our ancestors are buried and meet other Lee families there. They conduct the same ceremony in front of the ancestral grave mounds to serve food and drinks to our ancestors.
- Holiday food
After the ceremony at the house, it’s time to enjoy a breakfast feast! My aunts set the table with the ritual food, rice cake soup (tteokguk), galbi-jjim and japchae. Galbi-jjim and japchae are Korean festive food for holidays, birthdays or serving special guests. So, the Seollal breakfast table is full of delicious, special and amazing Korean dishes! With everyone sitting around the same table, no one can eat until the oldest person or a person in the highest position (usually the oldest male) takes the first bite. In my family, my grandmother has the honor. Once she takes a bite, the rest of the family and I can finally dig into all the delicious food we’ve been craving!
- New Year’s bow (Sebae 세배) Sebae is the most exciting part of Seollal for children because they receive cash gifts while bowing to adults! As Koreans bow to the ancestors, we also bow to our elderly family members. But the bow must be only once because bowing twice means greeting dead people. When young people bow, they say a New Year’s greeting, “Saehae bok mani badeuseyo.” And senior members return the sentiment with a blessing and cash gift! It is standard to give between 20,000 won and 100,000 won ($15.4-$77) for Sebae, and the surprising part is it doesn’t matter how old you are. My cousin is in his 40’s and still receives cash gifts from our uncles and aunts!
This is not only among family members. For instance, when Koreans visit our senior neighbors, teachers or someone older and in a higher position than us during the New Year’s season to offer greetings and gifts, the seniors offer well wishes and cash gifts. So, if you bow once offer New Year’s greetings to the Korean seniors you know or parents of your Korean friends, there is a good chance you may receive some won!
- Games As a big family, we play a lot of different games together, including New Year’s games like Yut Nori and Yeon Nalligi.
Yut Nori is a traditional board game with four sticks called Yut.
Yeon Nalligi is a kite flying game. When the kite reaches as high as possible into the sky, the string should be cut to release the kite as it’s believed to blow away any misfortune of the upcoming year.
During the New Year’s season, you will see many Koreans enjoying Yeon Nalligi at the Han River area and cultural heritages sites such as Suwon Fortress. There’s nothing like seeing traditional kites dotting the clear blue sky.
During Seollal, my grandmother’s house turns into a special place to enjoy a lot of fun winter activities. My favorite one is playing in the snow and riding a cardboard box down snow-covered hills.
My grandmother loved giving her grandchildren cash gifts on Seollal, so she kept selling vegetables from her farm until she was 90 years old to earn money. Though she passed away last year, we’ll still have her with us when we show our respect and gratitude during this year’s Seollal ceremony.
Nowadays, many customs and traditions are gradually disappearing. A lot of modern Korean families don’t celebrate Seollal in the traditional way anymore. Keeping tradition can be a burden sometimes, but I believe it helps keep our family strong, makes us proud of our roots and reminds us how important family is.
Where you can go Seollal is a unique and special holiday where you can experience some of Korea’s most important traditions. One of the most fun places to visit during Seollal is Korean Folk Village. You can try a variety of the traditional games and customs there.
- Hours: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. daily - Fees: 32,000 won for adults ($24.6) / 21,000 won ($16) for you and three of your friends if one of you have a birthday in the month you go. (ID required) Website
Korean Lesson
Saehae bok mani badeuseyo (새해 복 많이 받으세요): Happy New Year / I hope good fortune comes upon you in the new year
Saehae(새해): New year
Bok(복): Fortune
Sebaet-don(세뱃돈): New Year’s cash gifts
Don (돈): Money
Jesa (제사): Ancestral rites
Nori: game, play
Saehae bok mani badeuseyo!
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