Lunar New Year: The National Holiday in Korea
201103628 Hana Choi
Although Korea has been so developed over the last few decades that the lifestyle is westernized, still a number of traditional activities are preserved. Lunar New Year's Day is one of them. it is a Korean traditional holiday which takes place on January first every year by lunar calendar. During the holiday most of Korean family members get together to wish their family good luck and enjoy their time. For this long-term holiday, people here prepare many things and spend a meaningful and special holiday every year.
Unlike other holidays I am always excited to feel Lunar New Year's Day is around the corner because weeks before the holiday, the markets in Korea already become very crowded with the people who buy presents for their thankful neighbors and relatives. it is pretty entertaining to see merchants in vivid coloured Hanbok which is a Korean traditional costume, and sell a gift box of general merchandise including soaps, shampoos, tooth pastes and so forth. Also, things including a folding screen, special utensils and a big wooden table are bought since a memorial service is the main part of the holiday. In addition people buy some food for the ancestral rite and grandparents prepare delicious food to welcome their family. And people who want to wear Hanbok for the holiday rent or buy one.
A day or two before Lunar New Year, family members head to their hometown to make ritual food. Grandparents warmly welcome their sons, daughter and grandchildren and prepare a generous meal. After a big lunch women make different kinds of food for the rite and they usually make a lot of food to share it with others later. After the cooking, they go to a shop to have tteok made. Tteok is sticky and chewy korean rice cake and there are many different kinds of it but we make white and long tteok for the holiday. In every town there are several small tteok shops which are called 'tteok mill' and there we see the whole process of how a pack of rice we have brought go into a machine and turn out into hot and chewy tteok. While women do their job, men put out a folding screen, clean the utensils for the ancestral rite or make kites with children. In the evening we eat and take a rest playing Korean traditional games like yut or a card game called 'go-stop'.
On the early morning of the holiday people hold a memorial ceremony. We put the food, fruits and sweets which are prepared the day before in the steel dishes and set them on a big wooden table which is put in front of a screen. And we open the windows to let the spirits of our ancestors in and stop talking for a minute to give some time for the soul to eat the food. We vow two times in a row and the rite is over. After the rite we eat the food and tteok guk which is kind of soup with tteok, meat, vegetables in and garnished with chopped fried eggs and many pieces of cut seaweed. In Korea people believe they get one year older only after eating tteok guk on Lunar new year's Day so we eat at least one bowl of tteok guk during the day. Next we visit ancestors' cemetery bringing offerings and after that we visit others' house wearing colourful hanbok and give them presents. Children vow to the elderlies saying "Happy New Year" and in response to their vowing the old people give words of blessing and some money to the children. For the last of the day grown-ups eat and drink with their neighbors and children go out and play traditional games like top-spinning game, yut, jegi, or kite flying.
After Lunar New Year, many people do not get used to go back to their work or school because of all the eating and fun time they had. But on the other hand some people do not like this holiday because it costs money them to buy presents or food. Also they say too many things like making food, holding an ancestral ceremony and visiting so many houses go on only for two or three days. A few people even do not visit their family and go abroad for a trip during the holiday. However, if there was not the holiday Korean people would not make their time to meet either their neighbors or family members and did not think about the importance of their family. Lunar New Year's Day should be remained as the biggest national holiday in Korea to reunite family and make people remember their ancestors.
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