Saint Anselm College - Prof. Beth Salerno Blog

Seollal or Lunar New Year

February 11, 2008 Author: Beth Salerno

Koreans have traditionally followed two calendars, the solar one we use in the West and a lunar calendar. About half of Korea’s holidays are set by one calendar, half by the other; therefore my cell phone provides me the date in both calendars! This year Ipchun or first day of spring fell on February 4^th. Usu or first rainfall of the year should fall on February 19^th (I hope “first rain” also means “last snow”!). Seollal is lunar new year and it fell on February 7^th. It is one of the two biggest holidays in Korea. The other is Chuseok or Korean Thanksgiving (see blog entry at http://blogs.saintanselmcollege.net/bethsalerno/2007/09/25/thanksgiving-chuseok/.

On both Seollal and Chuseok, families travel across the country to their parents’ homes or the home of the eldest son in the male line (women usually travel to the husband’s family’s home). A colleague from Pyeongtaek and his wife kindly invited me to join their family celebration.

When I arrived in the morning, the women of the family had already been shopping for over a week and cooking for two days. The only male cooking responsibility is to peel the chestnuts. The men also set up the calligraphy screen (in this case a wedding gift from the wife’s father), as well as the “altar” table. Westerners have usually translated this celebration as “ancestor worship” making it sound incompatible with Christianity, but this family is devoutly Christian. They have adapted the original tradition of “placating” the ancestors with wine, incense, fine food and sweet desserts in exchange for good luck in the New Year. Like many Korean Christians, they continue the tradition as “ancestor veneration” or formally remembering their grandparents and great grandparents at family events. (I can only imagine my deceased grandparents were a tad jealous - my grandmothers would have been eager to try ”just a taste” of everything!)

After the food was set up on the table, the ceremony began which primarily consists of pouring a cup of rice wine, moving it in a circle three times around a stick of incense, and then formally bowing three times to show respect and remembrance. The family did this for both of the wife’s parents and for the husband’s father. Traditions are changing so fast in Korea that each family does the ceremony differently - some are very serious, some allow laughing and joking, some families wear traditional clothing or hanbok, others wear western business clothing. In this case only the grandmother in the family and myself wore traditional hanbok. Hers is the beautiful dress style. Mine is called “practical” hanbok and is of much simpler material.

After the ancestors had a brief chance to “eat” the food, it was our turn. Although there were only seven of us, there was enough food for dozens of people. It will be eaten by visiting relatives for 2 or 3 days. Traditional food includes two kinds of fish, beef, many kinds of egg pancake or jeon (dried fish, mushroom, pork, and vegetable), plus rice cake soup (ddoek guk), tofu, vegetables, and rice. Dessert includes peeled raw chestnuts, dried pomegranates, fresh pears and apples, and a sweet rice drink called shikye. This family added cheesecake this year! (If you click on the picture of the table, you will find a larger version of the picture and a detailed list of all the foods; you can also find it http://www.flickr.com/photos/10642665@N04/2257697200/ .

Children love Lunar New Year because in exchange for deep bows of respect and a willingness to listen to to a few minutes of good advice, they receive envelopes of cash. This provides an incentive to sit semi-quietly in traffic for endless hours to visit less frequently seen relatives or other elders. My colleague’s holiday tradition includes visiting his dissertation advisor, the founder of American Studies in Korea. I like this unassuming and quiet “grand old man” very much, so I went along. Sitting in a car for two hours traveling to Seoul reminded me of many U.S. holiday trips. When the Korean radio station played Van Halen, Donna Summers, the Bee Gees and the infamous “Da Doo Run Run Run, Da Doo Run Run” I was glad I had worn hanbok. Otherwise I might have wondered if I had entered a time warp!

Americans and Koreans may have different forms for their most special holidays, but the basics are the same - food and family. Here perhaps there is also more emphasis on remembering the past and preserving family connections in a period of rapid and unsettling cultural change. As Korea becomes a more global, multiracial and multicultural society, more and more families travel abroad during Seollal, taking advantage of the five day weekend to vacation. But many still practice the older traditions, trying to adapt them to modern needs. By inviting a foreigner to join them for the first time, both my colleague’s family and his advisor’s brought together past and future. I am very grateful.