Seollal Korean New Year

Understanding Seollal (설날)

Seollal is the Korean Lunar New Year. It is celebrated on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month of the Sino-Korean calendar, which puts the Gregorian date somewhere between late January and mid-February. That is the same day as Chinese New Year and Vietnamese Tết.

It runs three days as a national holiday, and together with Chuseok it is one of the two great traditional festivals in Korea. Families come together to wear hanbok (한보), perform sebae (세배) — a deep bow of respect to elders, repaid with words of wisdom and money in silk pouches — and share tteokguk (뙼국), a rice-cake soup. According to traditional Korean reckoning, finishing your tteokguk adds a year to your age.

Applications

Plan trips to Korea, where the holiday sets off the country's biggest annual migration after Chuseok. The dates also help when you schedule international meetings around Korean office closures, organize K-culture events abroad, or time gift shipments. Korean firms tend to hand out holiday bonuses and gift sets in the weeks leading up to Seollal.

FAQ

Is Seollal the same as Chinese New Year? They share the same lunar date because both run on the Sino-Korean/Chinese lunisolar calendar. The customs are another matter: Korea has sebae, tteokguk and hanbok rather than red envelopes and dumplings.

How many days off do Koreans get? The official Seollal holiday covers three days: the eve, the main day, and the day after. If one of those lands on a weekend, a substitute weekday off is usually granted.

Why is age tied to tteokguk? Under traditional Korean age counting, everyone turns a year older on Seollal rather than on their own birthday, and emptying a bowl of tteokguk stands in for that passage.