How we celebrated Seollal, The Korean Lunar New Year This Year 🫶🏻🫶🏻

This year (2024) , we started a new family tradition of making homemade mandu soup, which is a tradition from my husband’s family. It is a common tradition among Korean families and a great tradition to start if you want to celebrate Seollal in a super traditional way! Read on to find out more on how to celebrate Seollal, the Korean Lunar New Year, with your family this year!

1. Stopping by the Asian Market

We went to the Asian market on the Lunar New Year to buy the ingredients for the mandu soup, and they had hired a team to do the lion dance there! The music was loud and fun. It was very festive. Normally, I wouldn’t advise going to the Asian market on a holiday as the market may be closed or otherwise very busy, but we really enjoyed the festive atmosphere of the market, so I think it could make for a fun (and free) culturally immersive family trip!

2. Decorating a Banner

Decorating a Lunar New Year banner is a fun and easy activity for kids of all ages. Each year has an animal and an element to go with it, so you can decorate accordingly. The 12 animals are: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. The 5 elements are wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. 2024 is the year of the wood dragon which is blue-green. In Korean it is called the 청용 (Cheong-yong). I just drew the dragon and laid out crayons. I laid out only the colors that would help bring the blue-green dragon to life. I put the dragon over cardboard to keep the mess off the floor!

3. Making Mandu Ricecake Soup as a Family – 만두 떡국

We made mandu as a family to go into the rice cake soup! We made my husband’s family’s original recipe as well as a vegetarian recipe for my parents. I will share a link here to a blog with the recipes soon!

We made the filling early in the day, bought the dough premade, and then all the family helped to put the filling in the dough once they arrived at the celebration. We steamed some and put the rest into the ricecake soup that my husband made and just boiled it in the soup.

4. Dance Party

Since we have 2 toddlers in the family, we put on some traditional music for them to dance to. They had a blast dancing together!

Here are some songs to listen to when celebrating Seollal, the Korean New Year:

Here are some songs in English as well:

5. Bowing to Grandparents

We ended the night by doing Sebae 세배 to my in-laws. My husband showed me and our daughter how to bow properly, and then we did a video call with my in-laws. We greeted them for the new year by bowing and saying, “새해 복 많이 받으세요~!” “Happy New Year!” (Have a new year full of blessings.)

My daughter then enjoyed chatting on the phone with her grandparents!

6. Playing Yutnori 윷놀이

I made a yutnori game just to play on Lunar New Years. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to play it; however, it is definitely a fun activity to do with the whole family! I will make a blog soon all about Yutnori. I will include how to make your own DIY version, where to purchase it, how to talk about the game, and also how to play the game. Follow me on Instagram to get updates when I post new blog posts!

Vocab

Here are some vocabulary and phrases for Seollal, the Korean Lunar New Year:

새해 The New Year

만두 Mandu / Dumplings

만구국 Mandu soup / Dumpling soup

청용 Blue-green Dragon / Wood Dragon

세배 Bowing to Elders

설날 Seollal / The Lunar New Year

새해 복 많이 받으세요! Happy New Year! (Have a new year filled with blessings!)

윷노리 Yutnori – Traditional Korean game where you toss sticks

I’d love to hear how you and your family like to celebrate Seollal, the Korean Lunar New Year, or if you are going to try any of these ideas! Let me know below~

Thanks for reading!

-Korean at Home