Occasion and Festivities in South Korea

    Hello, Good day everyone. How are you doing? Fine? Is everything okay in your country? I hope it is. Anyway, if you had a lot of free time let's study and read a bit about occasion and festivities in South Korea.

    Today, we will continue our study about South Korea on its occasion and festivities. Like many other countries, South Korea had some occasions and festivities that you should know about. Right at this moment, we will explain to you some of it. So let's get groovin' 

1. Seollal (New year's Day)

        Seollal is the first day of the Korean Calendar. You could say that Seollal is one of the most important holidays in South Korea. Seollal usually lasts for 3 days.  During this time many people visit their family, perform the ancestral ceremony, wear a hanbok (Korean traditional dress), eat many traditional foods, play traditional games, and perform Sebae (greetings) to the elders.

2. Daeboreum ( First Full Moon) 

        Daeboreum is a holiday that celebrates the coming of the first full moon in the lunar calendar. These festivities are almost the same as the Lantern Festival in China and Koshogatshu in Japan. There is some tradition during Daeboreum like Bureom which is people crack some kind of nuts with their teeth and Jwibulnori which is a traditional game that is played at night before Daeboreum. and many other traditions. South Korean people also eat many traditional foods that had a connection with superstition. 

3. Dano (Celebration of Spring and Farming) 

        Dano or Surit-nal is a holiday that falls on the 5th day of the fifth month in the Lunar calendar. Dano was a day of spiritual rites. During Dano, women wash their hair in water boiled changpo, wear flowers in their hair, and wore red or blue clothes. They played a lot of traditional folk games like swing, ssireum, and stone battle game. Korean also eat many rice cake during Dano. 

4. Chuseok ( Harvest Festivals)

        Chuseok or also known as Hangawi is a major harvest festival and lasts for 3 days. Celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Lunar Calendar. This year it falls from 30 September until 2 October. During Chuseok, South Korean usually go to their family home town, do the ancestor ceremonial, and do some harvest feasts with Songpyeon (type or rice cake) and rice wines. It's related to the Mid-Autumn Festival in China and Vietnam, also Tsukimi in Japan. 

5. Dol 

        Dol is an occasion that celebrated the first birthday of a baby. It's similar to the Zhuazhou from China and Tedak Sinten from Indonesia. The highlight of Dol is the doljabi, where the baby put in front of many objects like thread, tape measure, harmonica, money, compass, pencil, stethoscope, spoon, and others. It belives what is the baby pick up will tell the baby future. Also usually there is rice cake and miyeok guk (seaweed soup).