Have you watched BTS’s video wishing ARMY a happy Seollal yet?
Perhaps you haven’t heard the word before, but you might still be familiar with the concept of the Lunar New Year. Seollal is Korea’s New Year holiday. It commonly lands around the same dates as the Chinese New Year, with slight variations sometimes. This year it took place between January 21st and the 24th.
This is one of Korea’s biggest holidays of the year, so it is a very important occasion with its own set of traditions and rituals. If you’re curious, read on to learn more about Seollal, how it’s celebrated, mentions in recent BTS content, and 2023’s animal!
The Korean New Year
Seollal occurs on the first day of the Lunar New Year. It’s a three-day holiday that includes the day before and the one afterward as well. While it is unclear exactly when Koreans started celebrating it, according to Korea’s own record of new year celebrations compiled in the 13th century, it was already one of their major 9 festivals at the time. Therefore, Seollal has a pretty long history.
However, that history had its struggles. The celebration was temporarily banned starting in 1907 due to the Japanese influence during the war. After liberation, Korea adopted the New Year according to the Gregorian calendar instead of going back. It wasn’t until the 1980s, encouraged by the general opinion of respecting their own traditions, that Seollal was re-established in its current form and declared a national holiday.
As previously mentioned, this is mostly a family-centered tradition, which means that lots of people take it as a time to visit their hometowns to see their loved ones, honor their elders and ancestors, and partake in many other traditions. They might dress in traditional Hanbok, just like BTS did in the video, prepare traditional dishes, gift presents and play traditional games. These can include board and card games, flying kites, jumping on a seesaw, and top spinning, just to mention a few.
The Food
As with most festivities, food is a main element in the celebration of Seollal. This is especially important regarding one of the rituals to honor the family’s ancestors, Charye, which requires offering traditional dishes, arranged in a specific order.
We’ve previously mentioned some of the New Year’s foods in our previous blogs, so this time around, we’ll focus on a recent example of these foods being served in BTS’s content.
Are you watching Suga’s “Suchwita” on YouTube? Since the recent episodes aired around the end and beginning of the new year, there have been some interesting references. In episode 3, Taeyang brought two traditional beverages to share with Suga, Sikhye, and Sujeonggwa. As explained on the show, the first one is made by fermenting rice, while the second one is made with brewed ginger and cinnamon.
Although many of us may have never tasted these, BTSARMYKitchen on Twitter has the recipes for both Sujeonggwa and Sikhye. Of course, Suga is an outstanding host, so he had a selection of holiday-themed dishes ready to accompany their drinks. They included rice cakes, various types of meat and vegetables, and honey cookies. Once again BTSARMYKitchen is ready with a thread identifying each of the foods, while also providing the corresponding recipes.
Eat out at a Korean restaurant or prepare them yourself, we’re sure you’ll have a great time trying these dishes!
The Year of the Rabbit
The next reference to the New Year on “Suchwita” that you might’ve noticed, happened in episode 2. Here, Suga gifted his guest, Shin Dong Yeob, a black rabbit plushie. Every year has an associated animal from the Chinese zodiac, and it’s easy to guess which one corresponds to 2023.
Each of those animals has associated symbols and qualities, and according to tradition, they can give us a sense of what kind of fortune the new year will bring. In this case, of course, we have the rabbit, which is a rather propitious animal. They commonly symbolize prosperity, longevity, and even fertility—which would mean 2023 could be a pretty good year.
The rabbit has been briefly referenced in BTS’s “IDOL” music video as well. You might remember a scene where the full moon has a rabbit moving inside, this is the moon rabbit. There are some variations to this story, but in this case, we’ll take the one about a rabbit that was made a guardian of the moon by the Great Emperor in the heavens after an act of self-sacrifice. When looking up at the moon, it would seem that the rabbit is making rice cakes, sometimes said to represent abundant harvest, others to contain an elixir for immortality.
Will you be in Korea anywhere between now and March 6th?
You could pay a visit to a charming rabbit-themed exhibition organized by the National Folk Museum of Korea, titled “Here Comes a Rabbit,” to commemorate the occasion. However, if you can’t make the trip, you can check the pictures and learn about the exhibition here.
Happy New Year
Seollal is a very important celebration for Korea, a time for the family and a moment of reflection about the year that has passed and the one that is to come. Especially to those celebrating Seollal, we wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year!
DISCLAIMER: We do not own any audio & visual content in this video except for the editing. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THE RIGHTFUL OWNERS. No copyright infringement intended.
Written By: Rebeca
Edited By: Esma
Checked By: Miranda
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