I find that the celebration of birthdays- especially the first birthday- is a unique and interesting aspect of Korean culture. Most commonly known as doljanchi, dol means first birthday and janchi means feast. Due to the high infant mortality rate in Korea in the 19th century, a child’s first birthday was an incredible milestone that was celebrated to wish them health and longevity. Surviving the first 365 days was a bright sign that the child would continue to grow up healthy. Although there are many traditions within this grand celebration, I wanted to highlight two aspects: dolsang and doljabi. The infant wears a hanbok, a traditional style Korean clothing, and sits on top of the head "sang". Sang means table so dolsang includes all the food and symbolic objects that is intended to wish the infant a life without adversity. This includes fruits (prosperity), different types of ricecakes (knowledge and wisdom), silk pouches (vibrant life), and flowers as decorations. Doljabi is a tradition where a variety of objects are placed in front of the child and the object they choose represents their particular future profession or fortune. Some traditional items are the pencil/brush (scholar), money (wealth), rice (plentiful life), thread (long life), or bow and arrow (military career). Nowadays, I have seen items such as a microphone (entertainer), sport balls (athlete), gavel (lawyer), and stethoscope (doctor). Of course, there is only a small pile of items that the parents lay out in front of the baby, so there are limited options, but I always enjoy the doljabi section of the party because it can often be amusing. Attending a doljanchi can be incredibly entertaining and is an important celebration that the parents spend a considerable amount of energy into.
An example of a recent event was the celebration of my lovable neighbor’s first birthday. The doljanchi was held at our church and he seemed to have had a blast. When the time came to do the doljabi, some of the items were a tennis ball, guitar, and money. The adults thought it would be extra amusing to have both a $20 and $100 bill. When he was encouraged to grab an object, his hand immediately dived in for the $100 bill. This made the entire crowd laugh while the baby smiled and waved his prize around. I’ve attached the picture to the blog! I didn’t have many, so I included the photo where the infant grabbed the $100 bill.
I have always been curious about what I grabbed for my doljabi, but it turns out that my parents didn’t set one up for either me or my siblings. I guess I’ll never know what object my infant self craved for that day. On another note, I do have a recording of my doljanchi which a family friend edited for us. In the video you can see the piles of fruit and ricecakes, flower and balloon decorations, close friends and family, and a younger version of myself and my parents in hanbok.
Comments
This is so cute! I feel like most non-Koreans probably know about this tradition or something like it from Avatar the Air-bender where the titular character picks out toys as a baby. When he picks a toy from each different bending type or picks toys that his past life had, the elders knew he was the chosen one. Of course this is a very different and fictionalized process, but it is interesting to see the influence of Korean culture in media. I'm sorry that you didn't get to have a doljabi, but I'm sure that the pictures you have from your's and your neighbors' doljanchi are precious. Also, I have a question, do people ever include farming tools in doljabi as a potential career option?