Begun in Ancient Joson age, our nation’s custom of celebrating the lunar New Year’s Day has been inherited to this day through a long period from Koguryo, Koryo and feudal Joson dynasties.
Regarding the day as the first day of a new year that brings hope, people of all ages and both sexes prepared various kinds of dishes, dressed themselves in new clothes, held memorial services, made New Year’s visits and played varied games.
In an old book “Tongguksesigi” is recorded as solbim for dressing in new clothes, as charye for holding memorial services, as sebae for visiting relatives and seniors to make New Year’s bow, and as sechan and seju for dishes and spirits respectively.
In the morning of the New Year’s Day, our people held services for their dead ancestors and visited their graves followed by visits to their relatives and seniors to wish good luck for the year. When children, dressed in new clothes, made a bow to the elders, the elders wished them good luck and served them food. People placed a box (called seham) in front of their houses for visitors to put pieces of paper with their names on. Later, they were said to be replaced with New Year’s cards. Dishes prepared for the day were rice-cake soup, steam rice cake, yakbap (glutinous rice mixed with sugar, dates, chestnuts, pine-nuts, sesame oil, etc.), glutinous rice cake, dumplings stuffed with honey and sesame, fried glutinous rice cake, fish, slices of boiled meat, fermented fish, liquor, etc., among which rice-cake soup, yakbap and fried glutinous rice cake were regarded as musts.
Yakbap was considered to be of superior grade for memorial services and guest service.
Major folk games played on the day were yut-game and children’s kite-flying and tipcat.
The custom of celebrating the lunar New Year’s Day mirrors the beautiful characteristics of our people who respect the elders and betters, value etiquette and are possessed of optimism.
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