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Celebrating Lunar

New Year,

Korean Style!

Slide Deck by Jini Shim

jini_shim@myfsd.org

Last updated Jan 27, 2025

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did you knowโ€ฆ

Historically, Some countries did not consider january 1 as the new year?

They observed lunar new year instead.

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What is

Lunar New Year?

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Lunar New Year is the first day of the new year according to the Lunar Calendar. Long time ago, some countries followed the lunar calendar, where the moonโ€™s cycle determines the dates.

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Which countries celebrate Lunar New Year?

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Along with Korea, many countries in Asia observe Lunar New Year, such as China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Mongolia, Tibet, etc.

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๐ŸŽต Learn to sing the Lunar New Year song: Magpie Magpie New Year ๊นŒ์น˜ ๊นŒ์น˜ ์„ค๋‚ ์€

The Magpie bird symbolizes โ€œgood newsโ€, so Koreans sang about the Magpie on New Yearโ€™s day.

Lyrics:

๊นŒ์น˜ ๊นŒ์น˜ ์„ค๋‚ ์€ ์–ด์ €๊ป˜๊ณ ์š” (โ€˜Magpie, magpie, yesterday was your New Yearโ€™s)

์šฐ๋ฆฌ์šฐ๋ฆฌ ์„ค๋‚ ์€ ์˜ค๋Š˜์ด๋ž˜์š” (โ€˜But today is our New Yearโ€™s Dayโ€™)

๊ณฑ๊ณ  ๊ณ ์šด ๋Œ•๊ธฐ๋„ ๋‚ด๊ฐ€ ๋“ค์ด๊ณ  (โ€˜I put in my beautiful pigtail ribbonsโ€™)

์ƒˆ๋กœ ์‚ฌ์˜จ ์‹ ๋ฐœ๋„ ๋‚ด๊ฐ€ ์‹ ์–ด์š” (โ€˜and a newly bought pair of shoesโ€™)

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How Korea celebrates Lunar New Year

From Jan 2025

About 2 mins

Arirang News (English language news channel in South Korea)

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How do you say

โ€œLunar New Yearโ€

in Korean?

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Seol-lal

์„ค๋‚ 

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When is the exact date of the Lunar New Year?

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In 2025: Jan 29

In 2026: Feb 17

In 2027: Feb 7

In 2028: Jan 27

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What is the Lunar New Year greeting that Koreans say to each other?

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์ƒˆํ•ด ๋ณต ๋งŽ์ด ๋ฐ›์œผ์„ธ์š”!

Sae-hae-bohk mah-ni ba-deu-seh-yo!

โ€œReceive lots of luck in the New Yearโ€

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What do Koreans eat on Seol-lal?

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Dduk-guk ๋–ก๊ตญ

โ€œrice cake soupโ€

Koreans believed that only by eating this rice cake soup, one truly becomes one year older.

How to make dduk-gook!

(2 min)

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What are some traditional Korean Seollal activities?

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์ฐจ๋ก€ Cha-rye

โ€œAncestral ritesโ€

Charye is a memorial service that prays for the peace and good health of the ancestors. Family members will dress up or wear a hanbok (the traditional Korean dress). Everyone will then gather in front of a table prepared for the ancestral rite.

Seollal Activity

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The meaning behind the items on the table

Many of these traditional activities are also done on โ€œChuseok ์ถ”์„", also known as โ€œKorean Thanksgiving Dayโ€ in September

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์„ธ๋ฐฐ Se-bae

โ€œNew Yearโ€™s Bowโ€

Families gather, and the younger ones do the โ€œNew Yearโ€™s bowโ€ to the elders of the family as a sign of respect.

Then, the elders would share some words of wisdom to the younger ones.

Seollal Activity

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Along with their words of wisdom, it is customary for the elders to give money to the younger ones. This money is called โ€œSe-bae-dohn ์„ธ๋ฐฐ๋ˆโ€ and could be placed in a red โ€œluck pouchโ€ then given out.

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Korean Money

ํ•œ๊ตญ ๋ˆ

Hangook Dohn

What do Korean bills look like?

Learn about

Equivalent to these US Dollars

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Korean Money

ํ•œ๊ตญ ๋ˆ

Hangook Dohn

Who are the historical figures on the Korean bills?

Shin Saimdang

(1504-1551)

Calligraphist, poet, writer, and artist

King Sejong the Great

(1397-1450)

King who created the Korean alphabet and other notable scientific inventions

Yi I aka Yulgok

(1536-1584)

Scholar

Yi Hwang aka Toeh-gye

(1501-1570)

Scholar

Learn about

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Learn how to do the New Yearโ€™s bow!

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What are some games played on Lunar New Year?

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์œท๋†€์ด Yoot-nori

โ€œGame of Yootโ€

This traditional game involves 4 wooden sticks and a game board with 4 pieces. The team to have all of their 4 pieces make it around the board wins.

Seollal Activity

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์—ฐ๋‚ ๋ฆฌ๊ธฐ Yeon naligi

โ€œFlying Kitesโ€

It was believed that as the kites flew higher and higher, the bad spirits will fly away and good spirits will come your way.

Seollal Activity

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How will YOU celebrate Lunar New Year Korean style?

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Additional Resources

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๐Ÿ–Œ๏ธColor a Korean traditional folk art template of the Tiger and Magpie

Tiger represented a force that warded off evil spirits. Magpie represented bringing of the good news.

It was customary to place a picture of a Tiger and Magpie on the front door of the house for protection and good luck.

Click the image to access the file of template

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๐ŸŽฆ Videos on Korean Lunar New Year

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Seol-lal Video Comprehension

(watch up to 4 min 35 sec)

Then answer questions on the Google form

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Listen to a story about celebrating the

Lunar New Year: