January 26th marks the first day of the lunar Korean calendar, making it New Year's Day. This is the most important of the traditional Korean holidays, and involves a series of celebrations. Koreans dress up in colorful hanboks and perform ancestral rituals.One of the ancestral rituals is called sabae, in which children visit their parents and grandparents and wish them happy new year by doing a deep traditional bow. The children are then rewarded with money and words of wisdom.
To celebrate, Koreans also eat a lot of tteok guk, which is soup with rice cakes, and enjoy a lot of
sujeonggwa, a sweet cinammon and persimmon drink.
Many games are also played during this holiday. A board game called Yut and a card game called Go-Stop are very common. Men fly kites and women play a game of nurtwigi, which is a game of jumping on a see-saw!
We find the Korean culture so fascinating and it's fun to learn more about it! Perhaps our child is experiencing his or her very first Seollal!
2 comments:
It is fascinating to learn so much about Korean culture from your blog! Sweet Baby Kinley is so blessed to have a mommy and daddy who care so much and want to include his or her culture in their home!
Happy New Year!!
Post a Comment