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The Korean Lunar New Year or Seol is the first day of the Korean calendar. In the year 2009, the Korean New Year falls on January 26th. Generally the Korean New Year coincides with the Chinese Year.
An important ritual practiced on the Korean Lunar New Year Day first is the “jae sa” custom. Here, the family members remember and pay their respects to their departed relatives. The photo frames bearing the pictures of their departed relatives are arranged on the table, incense sticks are lit and food dishes are kept in front of them. These food dishes could be meat dishes, bowls full of sticky rice, japache or potato noodles, rice confectioneries and fruit plates stacked with persimmons and Asian pears. Each and every dish has a special place on the table and has to be offered to the departed souls in a special way. The belief behind this ritual states that if the departed relatives are fed well, they will be strong enough to bless their descendants.
Korean Lunar New Year Celebration
The Koreans are family oriented people. They believe in celebrating the New with their family. They generally wear new clothes called “Solbim” while their traditional dress called the “Hanbok” and wish each other. The New Years day begins with visiting and wishing their parents with “Saehae bok manhi badeseyo” – receive a lot of new year's luck. They pay their respects to elders by bowing for them.
In return, parents gift young ones with new year's money. Koreans generally distribute money to their children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren and other small children in generally. Some people prefer to distribute new crisp notes too. The Bank of Korea issues crisp notes on the occasion of Korean New Year.
Traditional Korean New Year food is prepared and savored with relish by one and all. Koreans prepare “dduk gook” or “mandu gook” which is soup with floating rice cakes shaped in ovals. Mandu gook is the dduk gook with steamed dumplings.
On Korean Lunar New Year, many traditional games are played. Some of them being kite flying, top spinning, snow sliding or the yut game. Yut game is one of the earliest game that is still popular even today. People start playing the yut game from the Korean Lunar New Year with four special sticks and a special yut pan with 29 circles.
Jishin Balpgi is another ritual followed on Seol or the Korean Lunar New Year. Koreans try to ward off evil spirits by playing gongs and loud drums, this ritual is called the Jishin Balpgi. They then spend the Seol or the New year with friends and relatives by having meals together or simply catching up with each other.
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