Seollal: Korean New Year

In any place in the world, a new year is something to celebrate. People have parties, eat traditional foods, and hold special events. In Korea, New Year’s day is called Seollal.

There are many theories about the origin of the word “Seol Nal”. [The ‘n’ sound of the second syllable becomes a silent letter when pronounced together with the first syllable. – Ed.]

Nal means “day”, but seol is a disputed part of the New Year’s Day name. Some say it came from sal, meaning “age”. This sal is the same word in “Myeoch sal ini?” (“How old are you?”). Since Korean people “earn one year” of age at Seol Nal, some say this is the origin of seol. Others say it is from seon-da (to stand up), and still others believe it is from seol-da (immature). Whatever the origin of the name Seollal, its cultural meaning is that of a sacred time when the ancestors and their descendants are together.

In accordance with this meaning, Koreans hold many special events to celebrate their ancestors and serve their elders. One of the most famous traditions is Seollal chalye. On Seollal, Koreans set a table in a big room (usually the living room) and fill it with various dishes, fruits, and rice cake soup (ddeok-guk). In the middle of the table, families set an ancestral tablet (wipae) to make sure their ancestors find their places. The finished table is called chalyesang. Koreans believe that their ancestors come by and eat (or more literally, smell) these foods, and the descendants can eat it afterwards. Another important event is sebae, or bowing. This is an event every Korean child eagerly awaits. After Seollal chalye, children bow to their parents and elders for well-being in the new year. The elders, in return, give the children money. The gifts probably amount to the largest sum of money the children will ever touch in a year.

Outside of these events, Korean children play traditional games like yuchnol-i (yut game) and yeonnalligi (kite flying). The yut game is a board game with a long history. The four yut pieces (wooden sticks) are thought to originate from fortune telling that was common long before the the Three Kingdoms period in Korea. Nowadays, it is a beloved game for children using four yut in a similar fashion to dice to move a game piece over a board. At each turn, the player throws the four yut simultaneously and moves his or her game piece depending on the number of overturned pieces. Kite flying is another meaningful entertainment for the winter and New Year’s Day. Originally, people flew kites and then cut the kite string to let them loose, symbolizing the letting go of past disasters.

Another special thing to notice on New Year’s Day is the food that Koreans eat. On Seollal, all of the family members eat ddeok-guk, or rice cake soup, symbolizing that an individual has earned another year for his or her age. This is why some Koreans ask, “How many bowls of rice cake soup did you eat?” This, in other words, means, “How old are you?” because Koreans eat rice cake soup every New Year’s Day, and the number of bowls they ate is equal to their age.

By Laura Won

a student at Gwangju Foreign School.

Bowing photo from Dunianya Mey blog.
Yut game photo from Wikimedia Commons.

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