Seollal New Year celebration of Korean cultural center in Indonesia

On Friday, January 24, 2020, the Korean cultural center in Indonesia held an event, which is the new year according to Chinese calendar calculations or called Seollal, this event was very lively, attended by many Indonesian people who wanted to know how the event was carried out, various event sequences namely the introduction of the new year Seollal, playing a typical South Korean game and also a photo session with a background typical of the Korean new year.

This is an explanation of the Seollal new year, On the day before the Seollal festival which falls on January 25 this year, as much as possible the Korean people will pay off all debts and payments and stop collecting debt until that day because it is the last day on the Lunar Calendar.

On the eve of the new year called jeya or jeseok, households will be busy preparing for the new year until midnight and give each other end of year gifts of food and drinks to relatives. This tradition is called sechan or food prize.

In addition, Koreans will usually wear traditional clothing (hanbok) and perform various preparations for celebrations ranging from preparing to worship ancestral rituals, preparing various snacks typical of Seollal, playing traditional games to listening to stories of olden times.

On the day of the ceremony, on the morning of the new year, all family members gathered in the worship hall complete wearing new clothes typical of Korea to welcome the new year. This tradition is called seolbim.

After that they will carry out a tradition called jeongjo charye or greetings to the ancestors. There also served a variety of foods for the ancestors. After praying, all family members gather to eat Seollal special snacks.

Typical Seollal Foods

Seollal New Year's cuisine and drinks are called seol-eumsik and seol-sul. Seol-eumsik is the term for all types of food served on that day. The dishes that must be available are rice cake soup or tteokguk.

In tteokguk there is usually a round rice cake used to describe the moon, then thin sliced ​​eggs, seaweed or kim, vegetables, beef, and pheasant meat are added.

Eating tteokguk is believed to make a long life. The white color of tteok or rice cake symbolizes cleanliness and purity to start the new year. Besides tteokguk there are 4 other foods that must be served at Seollal, including japchae, phajeon, yakgwa, and sujeonggwa.

Japchae is fried vermicelli filled with clear noodles which are later mixed with sliced ​​vegetables, eggs, and thin meat. Pajeon is a typical Korean pizza made from a mixture of flour, sliced ​​vegetables, and meat (can beef, chicken, or seafood).

Yakgwa and sujeonggwa are desserts that must be served. Yakgwa is a traditional cake made from wheat dough, honey and sesame. Yak in Korean means medicine, this cake is called a medicinal cake because it is made from honey which has medicinal properties so it is believed to be healthy throughout the year.

While sujeonggwa is a traditional Korean fruit punch made from a mixture of persimmon juice, ginger, cinnamon and pine nuts.

Cold liquor must also be served on Seollal's first day, because it means the family will welcome the arrival of spring.

Typical Seollal game

South Korean society has a variety of traditional games that are usually played at Seollal. But there are three of the most popular games, including yut nori, gonggi nori, and jegichagi.

Yut nori is a traditional board game in Korea that is played on a special patterned cloth. This game is played by two teams using dice, pawns, or small sticks called yut sticks that are about 18 cm in size.

While gonggi nori is a game similar to bekel, but the difference is gonggi nori is played without using a ball. Gonggi nori can be played with gravel or stone made of wood or plastic gonggi.

The last game commonly played during the Seollal festival is jegichagi. For those of you who like watching Korean variety shows such as Running Man and Master Key, you must be very familiar with this traditional game.

The way to play this game is to wrap a lightweight object in cloth or paper. Then the player must kick the object with one foot into the air and keep it from falling. The player who has kicked the most objects, is the winner.

That was a variety of traditions, food, and games typical of the Seollal festival. Hopefully this article is especially useful for Korean drama and K-pop lovers to increase knowledge about the culture and festivals in Korea. Happy Seollal Day!