Wow..it has been a while since I updated my blog. And today, unintentionally, I just found my blog. Yap..I totally forgot that I had a blog..hahaha.
Today is January 31th 2014 and in Lunar Calendar, today is the New Year. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
And for celebrating this day, I will write about Seollal. It is the ceremony of the Lunar New Year for South Korea people.
SEOLLAL
The Greatest South Korea National Festival
A.
INTRODUCTION
South Korea is one of
Asian countries which lies in Eastern Asia, southern half of the Korean
Peninsula bordering the East Sea and the Yellow Sea. Its capital city is Seoul.
As
the country which had ever become the great kingdom, South Korea has many
unique cultures. Although South Korea is a very modern
country, Koreans are still very proud of their culture and country. They always
protect and continue their traditions. Korea has many festivals. One of the
famous festivals in Korea is Seollal, a festival held in the
first day of the Lunar calendar.
B.
SEOLLAL (The South Korea Lunar New Year)
Unlike many people in the world, Koreans celebrate two
new years each year, i.e. Solar New Year and Lunar New Year. Solar New Year is
the first day of the solar calendar which is occurred on the January 1st
while Lunar New Year is the first day of the lunar calendar which is usually
occurs on the second moon following the winter solstice. The South Korea Lunar
New Year is called Seollal. Seollal is one of the most important and celebrated
national holiday along with Chunseok (the autumn harvest
festival). During Seollal, people usually go back to their hometowns to meet
their big family. They will perform ceremonial rites, pay respect to their
ancestors and spend time with their family members. As a result, the day before
and after Seollal is usually designated as holidays in Korea. It is the reason
of the three days holiday in South Korea during Seollal.
The day before Seollal, usually families in South Korea
visit the market or department store to do shopping to prepare the food for the
ceremony on the Seollal day. They also purchase expensive box sets of fruit,
meats, ginseng and honey as gifts for their parents and family. For the people
who far from home, this day is also used for them to go back to their hometown.
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Box sets of meats, ginseng and honey as gifts
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In this day, family’s woman is the super busy person.
She has to take care of the kitchen to prepare dishes for Seollal ceremony. Before
the Seollal day, usually a family will hang bamboo-woven ladles called bokjori
inside their home. Bokjori is a symbol of good fortune for the Lunar Year.
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| Bokjori, a symbol of good fortune for the Lunar Year |
On the morning of Seollal, people get up early to get
ready and dress up by putting their seolbim. Seolbim is brand new hanbok
prepared especially for Seollal.
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Koreans wear Seolbim for Seollal ceremony
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After getting ready, the family gathers together to
perform the ancestral rites called charye. They do charye in order to
pay respect to their late ancestors. This ceremony is to honor the past four
generations of ancestors of one's family. It is believed that the spirits of
the ancestors come to celebrate and feast on this holiday with their family.
For this ceremony, they have to prepare the dishes to be offered and place them
properly on the wooden table (charye sang) in front of the altar.
The table is prepared with traditional and favorite dishes including rice cake,
taro soup, beef, fish, fruits (pears and apples being the most common) and
wine. There are some specific rules on how to arrange the dishes on the table.
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Charye sang ( a wooden table with some dishes for the ancerstors)
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Usually, the ceremony is held around three in the
morning. It is because Korean believe that the spirit of the ancestors will
move around before the first rooster starts to crow. As a result, people choose
to stay up all night in Seollal eve to anticipate the ceremony.
In charye ceremony, only men in the family are allowed
to do the offering for the ancestors. The men of the family offer the food to
the ancestors by placing the spoons in the rice. They will also fill the wooden
cups with wine and place them on the stand. After the offering, a white paper
with the ancestors’ names written on it is burned. Then the whole family
performs the ritual bow (Jesa) twice. After waiting for the
spirits of the ancestors to finish the meal, the food is cleared off the table
and is finished off by the family members.
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The men of the family do offering to the ancestors in Charye ceremony
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The whole family perform Jesa bow
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After the ritual, the family has their meal. The main dish
for their meal on the Seollal is tteokguk, a tasty clear beef broth
with soft and chewy rice cakes sliced in oval shapes. Koreans believe that they
can only get older when they eat tteokguk. This is the reason why Koreans
prefer to ask how many bowls of tteokguk have they had in their life rather
than directly asking for the age. The white color tteokguk implies new birth,
while the slicing of it into round signifies a wish for health.
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| Tteokguk or rice cake soup |
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After the meal, the younger generations of the family
perform a deep bow called sebae to their parents,
grandparents, and the older relatives. Children are always excited performing sebae
because they will receive sebae-don or money from their
parents and elders as a return for their deep bow. People also exchange New
Year greetings called deokdam, wishing each other good
luck and health in the New Year.
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| The children receive sebae-don or money from their parents and elders as a return for their deep bow |
After the ceremony, people usually
gather in front of their house to play traditional games. They like to play yut
nori games, a board game played with sticks. Other games played during
Seollal are jegichagi ( kicking shuttlecosks), neolttwigi (seesawing),
and tuho.
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People play yut nori People play jegichagi
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Seollal is one of the greatest festivals in South
Korea. This is a festival to celebrate the Lunar New Year in South Korea. For
me, Seollal is an interesting festival because there are a lot of meaningful
story behind the ceremony of this festival. Each ceremonial process from the
charye until sebae including the ceremonial instruments, clothes, food, and the
games has their own meaning. And as I know, Koreans always feeling excited to
do the ceremonial process. They are happy and proud to continue their ancestors’
tradition in this modern era.
Seollal is time for the whole family to get together.
It is a family time. If I compare to my country, Indonesia, Seollal is like the
celebration of Idul Fitri. The similarity is not about the ceremony but the
atmosphere. The same atmosphere can be seen from the way how the whole family
get together, how the children get the money, how the people come back to their
hometown, how they tend to wear their best clothes, etc. I feel surprise how
Korean can still protect and continue their culture tradition in welcoming the
Lunar New Year in this modern era. I feel that they are very proud of their
tradition. And it also gives me motivation to be proud of my own country
tradition, Indonesia.
C.
CONCLUSION
At first look, Seollal just seems like a long holiday
in Korea, but if we look closer, it reveals that Seollal is a precious holiday
spends with family and friends, to respect to the ancestors, to eat together,
to play together, and to wish each other a great new year. There are a lot of meaningful
story behind Seollal ceremony and I feel happy to know them.
D.
REFERENCES
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