During the past week, we have celebrated the Lunar New Year. The Korean New Year falls on the same day as the Chinese New Year, which is on January 25th this year. Korean New Year, 설, is one of the most important traditional Korean holidays. Seol, is also known by many other names such as 원일Wonil which means the first day and 원단Wondan which means the first morning (both of these words originate from Chinese 元日 and 元旦).
According to 고려사Goryeosa (The history of Goryeo), during the Goryeo period (918-1392), the Lunar New Year is one of the major nine festivals that included ancestral memorial ceremony. 차례Charye, as I have mentioned in my previous research on Chuseok, is a tea offering ceremony held during the morning on the day of the festival. Charye takes place to venerate and commemorate one’s ancestors. East Asian Cultures share the common feature of great respect and high value for hierarchy and age, which is also reflected in the enforcement of honorifics in speech.
The celebration, unlike the Chinese traditional celebrations that last up to 15-20 days, lasts only for three days: Korean New Year itself, and the day before and after the New Year. On the day of the new year, 덕담deokdam is carried out. Deokdam refers to the activity of the exchange of wishing other people’s well. Though I didn’t find any specific evidence, the exact same activity is also carried out in Chinese Lunar New Year. In Korean Tradition, all family members need to dress up in their best hanbok, and offer new year greetings to elder members of the family and other friends. First, the youngest members of the family perform 세배sebae, a ceremonial bow to the elders, in response, the elders gave them new year greetings and wishes them good fortunes in the upcoming year, and receive pocket money. This will be followed by eating New Year’s food called 떡국tteokguk, rice cake soup.
However, as the Korean culture has now become more and more infused with western culture, many millennials now do not really celebrate seol, and many even choose not to go back to their hometown during the break due to work or high traffic load. The majority of the celebrations and New Year music shows are now scheduled in the International new year (December 31st – January 1st) rather than the traditional lunar new year. Furthermore, the younger populations are also choosing to celebrate Christmas over the traditional new year as many stores and businesses offer special prices and products during that period.
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