National Holiday: Seollal
What is Seollal?
Seollal is the Lunar New Year and it is one of the most celebrated national holidays in Korea. It is more than a holiday for the Korean people. It is a time to pay respect to ancestors, catching up with distant family members and travelling to hometown to get together with family. Traditionally hanbok is worn during Seollal. The holiday is spent performing ancestral rites, playing folk games, eating traditional food and telling stories. Seoul becomes a quiet city during this holiday. Many shops and restaurants close but the amusement parks and national parks stay open and host various events and traditional games for families. The departmental stores and major shopping districts stay closed for two days for this holiday.
The day before Seollal
Very much like Chuseok, celebrating Seollal requires a lot of preparations. This holiday involves exchanging gifts, travelling and a feast. As a result, there are usually a lot of things to purchase on the days before the holiday so the department stores and markets are very crowded before Seollal. Popular gift items for parents include ginseng, honey, health products and massage chairs. Gifts for others could be toiletries and gift baskets of fruits, traditional sweets, or fish. The feast is usually prepared with different wild herbs, meat, fish and fruits. All the ingredients are chosen carefully according to the quality of their shape, color and freshness. Since people travel back to their hometowns, travel arrangements need to be made ahead of time as their is a mad rush for bus, train and plane tickets. There is also heavy traffic at that time.
On the day of Seollal
The day of Seollal starts with ancestral rites. The ritual table is set up with an ancestral tablet and food according to the laws of the ancestral rites. Family members greet their ancestors with deep bows, proceed with the offerings, pray and bid farewell to the spirits. The goal of the ritual is to show respect and gratitude to the ancestors and pray for the family's well-being. After the rite, everyone eats the ritual food together. The principal dish of Seollal is tteokguk. This is a traditional soup made with sliced rice cakes, beef, egg, vegetables and other ingredients. Next, the younger generations pay respect to the elders with deep bows and present them with gifts. The elders offer their blessings and often give the younger family members sebaetdon (New Year's money) as Seollal gift. The rest of the day is spent playing traditional games like yutnori (a board game). Other games played in parks are jegi-chagi (footbag game), neol-twiggi (see-saw) and tuho (arrow toss).
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