Today marks the first day of the Korean Lunar New Year or the Seolnal, which lasts for three days. Like many aspects of Korean life, the holiday centers around family. Many pay their respect to their elders, travel great lengths to see family and honor those that have left this life. Food always seems to be a big part of any holiday or celebration and Seolnal is no exception. The traditional meal is a soup called tteokguk -a beef broth with thinly sliced rice cakes.
Children typically wear traditional hanboks and adults purchase new clothes to signify the start of a new year. The children bow (saebae) to their elders to show their respect and then are rewarded by an envelope with money as a New Year's gift. There are also traditional Korean games played to add to the festivities of the day.
Wesley and I will be going to a New Year's event put on by a group called "Friends of Korea" (or FOK) on Saturday to celebrate. The group is comprised of families around the Sacramento area (and surrounding areas) that have adopted or are adoptees from Korea. They get together throughout the year to share their adoption experiences, celebrate Korean culture and to simply be social. This will be our first FOK event so we're really looking forward to it!
I'll post afterward with photos and tidbits on the event. In the meantime. . .
새해 복 많이 받으세요(saehae bok man-hi ba-deu saeyo) - Happy New Year!
happy new year! we're going to a local lunar new year celebration, too!
ReplyDeletenot sure if you got my email, but we got your package the other day and we love it -- thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!
Happy New Year, Michelle! Your family looks wonderful. I miss our emails but I'm also glad that we're past the need that those emails were about. It's so nice being on this side of things and know that I think about you guys.
ReplyDeleteHey Michelle! Happy New Year! Thank you for your sweet, sweet comment! And for your support! It's gonna be crazy, but it feels right. So glad everything is going great with Wesley. I hope to keep in touch more. I'm going to do a picture post of Joye - just for you. ;) Give that sweet Wesley some loves for me!
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