Seollal, Annual Festive Season
Offers Diverse Korean Heritage

Koreans still enjoy traditional costumes, cuisine, games

Seollal is one of Korea's most popular traditional holiday seasons. Koreans welcome New Year's Day twice annually: first on Jan. 1 on the solar calendar and then on Seollal on the lunar calendar. This year's Seollal fell on Feb. 7, sandwiched in a three-day public holiday season.
Even as an increasing number of Koreans traveled overseas to take advantage of the long holiday season -- an estimate shows that as many as 2 million left the country -- as they have done for the past several decades, many Koreans embarked on shorter trips to their hometowns to get together with their parents and family members, braving bumper-to-bumper traffic in what is seen as a traditional annual exodus.
It has become a long-standing tradition for Koreans to head for their native towns, carrying gifts for their long-separated parents and family members while spending Seollal together.
On Seollal, Korean families share traditional foods they have prepared to observe the traditional ancestor's rites or to hold family reunions.
The foods include "tteokguk"(rice cake soup), made of thinly sliced tteok (rice cakes) cooked in beef soup; mountainous vegetables; fish; galbijim (rib stew); dumplings; slices of boiled meat; pan-fried dishes; raw beef; neureumjeok (beef and vegetable skewer); tteokjjim (rice dumpling stew); japchae (glutinous noodles mixed with stir-fried vegetables); cabbage kimchi; jang kimchi (kimchi pickled in soy sauce); yaksik (sweet rice cake); jeonggwa (fruit jam); gangjeong (fried grains mixed with honey); sikhye (sweet drink made of rice) and sujeonggwa (fruit punch).
The moment the younger generation Koreans, wearing colorful hanbok (traditional Korean costume), wait for during Seollal is after the traditional meal when they pay their respects to their parents and senior family members by bowing to them, receiving generous amounts of pocket money in the form of "seabaedon"in return for bowing.
During most of the traditional holiday, Korean families enjoy traditional games, including "yut,"a game with four wooden sticks,
"neolttigi,"a wooden see-saw and "yeon-nalligi,"a kite-flying contest.
Seollal is the time when Koreans recall the true meaning of their Korean cultural heritage, which is still being passed down from generation to generation despite the loss of the luster, influenced by globalization, modernization and market-opening policies. Koreans share the decades-old tradition through which they find their identity -- cultural roots surviving more than 5,000 years based on humane warmness, moral intimacy and the sharing of candid talk and meals during traditional get-togethers.
It is the children who feel most excited during Seollal, as it is an ideal time for kids because many of their parents take them to old palaces or traditional cultural sites where they can partake in traditional Korean games for perhaps the only time during the year.
On the occasion of Seollal, old palaces and parks in Seoul and other parts of the nation hold events designed to give visitors the chance to experience traditional Korean games,
including "yut"and "tuho,"an arrow-throwing game.
The Unhyon Palace in downtown Seoul, the residence of the father of King Gojong during the Joseon Dynasty, was one of the old palaces that was opened to the public free of charge from Feb. 6 to 10 between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to offer traditional performances and help visitors experience making such things as "jegi"and a paper rat.
World Cup Park, Seoul Grand Park and Seoul Forest Park held similar traditional performances during and after the traditional holiday.
BEAUTIFUL HANBOK
In all cultures, traditional costume is an indicator of national character and values. Koreans use "ot"as a general term for clothing. Koreans have designed their ot to not only cover their entire body but to be comfortable as well. Traditional clothing is called "hanbok,"an abbreviation of the term Han-gukboksik (Korean attire). Hanbok forms a highly effective expression of the Korean identity and changes in hanbok design from the past to the present parallel the nation's historical development.
Moreover, forms, materials and designs in hanbok provide a glimpse into the Korean lifestyle, while its colors indicate the values and world view of the Korean people.
The women's hanbok is comprised of a wrap-around skirt and a jacket. It is often called chima-jeogori, 'chima'being the Korean word for skirt and 'jeogori,'the word for jacket. The men's hanbok consists of a short jacket and pants, called 'jaji,'that are roomy and bound at the ankles. Both ensembles may be topped by a long coat of a similar cut called 'Durumagi.'The hanbok worn today are patterned after those worn during the Confucian-oriented Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). The Yangban, a hereditary aristocratic class based on scholarship and official position rather than on wealth, wore brightly colored hanbok of plain and patterned silk in cold weather and closely woven ramie cloth or other high-grade, light weight materials in warm weather. Commoners, on the other hand, were restricted by law as well as finances to bleach hemp and cotton,
and could only wear white, pale pink, light green, gray or charcoal colors.
Hanbok is a kind of apparel of the Caftan type; a style of attire commonly seen in Northeast and Central Asia. The outer top garment is loose fitting and opens in the front. Its one-piece coat mirrors other Asian designs.
Today few in cities wear hanbok as daily apparel but older women in the countryside still wear "chima," a skirt and "jeogori," a bolero-like blouse. A sokchima is a full slip and beoseon are thick padded socks. In winter, a long overcoat, durumagi, is worn outdoors. Durumagi is also worn on formal occasions during all seasons. Men wear jeogori, jokki, a vest, magoja, a jacket or short coat, and baji, baggy trousers. For undergarments, they wear variations of the jeogori and baji. Men also wear beoseon and sometimes a durumagi when they go out.
Ritual garments are worn for rites of passage. On their first birthday boys wear a knee-length vest, a five-colored top coat called kkachidurumagi, and on their head hogeon or bokgeon, which are peaked or plain hoods. Women wear dang-ui, a ceremonial jacket with front lapels, over chima and jeogori, a small bejeweled toque called jokduri on their head, and quilted beoseon decorated with embroidery and pompons, on their feet.
For a wedding the groom wears a gossamer hat called samo and dallyeong, a kind of topcoat with a rounded neckline and a belt. The bride wears wonsam or hwarot, a long decorative jacket, on top of seuran-chima, a long skirt decorated with embossed gold at the hem. nw

Seollal is an annual good opportunity for people, particularly children, to enjoy traditional games such as (fromleft photo) neolttugi and jegichagi.

Yut, a game with four wooden sticks and kite flying contest are among the favorite traditional games Korean enjoy during Seollal.

Korean families share traditional foods, including tteokguk, they prepared during seollal.