Celebrating the Year of the Dragon
Posted on 04. Feb, 2012 by Linda in Culture, Grammar, History, Holidays, Korean Culture, Korean Language, Pronunciation, Uncategorized, Vocabulary
In Korea, Lunar New Year (설날; transliteration: “Sohl-nahl”) festivities have come and gone. It’s been more than a week since 설날, but since this traditional holiday’s essence is family and community, Koreans will continue to ask each other, “How did you celebrate Lunar New Year?” or, “How do you celebrate New Year’s Day?” (“당신은 어떻게 설날 기념하나요?”; transliteration: “Dangshin-eun eotteohge sohl-nahl ginyeomnayo?”)
당신은 어떻게 설날 기념하나요? I would love to hear how you celebrated 설날, especially if this was your first 설날 experience! I have heard from a lot of friendly Korean language enthusiasts via this blog and on Twitter. Specifically, last week, I received requests for how to say “Black Dragon” on our Twitter account (twitter.com/koreanlanguage). Also, I received requests for a list of Lunar New Year greetings and instructions for 윷놀이 (Yutnori) . Listed below are the answers to your questions:
- Black dragon = 흑룡 (transliteration: heugl yong)
Black dragon year = 흑룡 해 (transliteration: heugl yong hae)
- A useful list of Korean Lunar New Year greetings is posted below and on my Scribd account: http://scr.bi/ApdZkF.
- And, easy to follow directions for 윷놀이 are posted on my Scribd account: http://scr.bi/zVfWU0 . (Note: 윷놀이 is a traditional Korean game played on 설날. It is played with family, and is popular with kids and adults alike. 윷놀이 is played with four wooden sticks, four tokens, and a board. Playing this game ensures harmony with nature, as the sticks represent the four seasons.)
I hope you enjoyed 설날 as much as I did—I embed myself into as many 설날 activities as I could this year. On my quest to be “more Korean”, I did the following:
- Cooked 떡만두국; duk mandu guk
(Details & a recipe are listed in our previous blog article titled, Korean New Year: A Traditional Soup Recipe.) - Wore a new outfit
(It is customary in Korea to wear a new outfit on 설날 for “new beginnings”!) - Cleaned my home
(It is customary in Korea to clean your home on 설날 Eve.) - Brought my shoes indoors
(Bringing shoes indoors on 설날 Eve prevents restless spirits from “filling shoes”.) - Played 윷놀이 with a group of adults and children!
- Wore a Hanbok, i.e., tried one on!
(Most modern South Koreans will not wear a Hanbok on 설날, but parents will often dress their young children in Hanboks on 설날.)
If you have any questions, or if you would like to share your thoughts or photographs with this community, please post them on this blog—or send me a “tweet” via Twitter. You might meet a new friend! : )
P.S. Next week, I will write about Korean Calligraphy!
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@ twitter.com/lindasauce3 Responses to “Celebrating the Year of the Dragon”
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Your posts have been generally perfect, but it seems you made a few mistakes this time!
1. ‘당신은 어떻게 설날 기념나요?’
I first saw this feeling a little awkward, and I tried analyzing the last term ‘기념나요’
{기념(root of “기념하다”-to celebrate) + 나(interrogative verbal ending) + 요(familiar polite ending)}
…and the error found: 기념 should be replaced by 기념하, which is the “stem” of 기념하다.
2. ‘흑용’
In both North and South Korean, noninitial phonemes are never dropped or demoted. So original pronunciation of 黑龍 shoulbe kept, thus 흑룡.
3. ‘용용 좋겠지’
It rather sounds ridiculous than serious new year greeting, and it doesn’t match with the English meaning ‘A great year of dragon.’
Though, it wasn’t your mistake. It seems the person who made the list was pretty hasty.
Hi Junghyeon! THANK YOU very much for reading, and for your wonderful response and corrections!
1. So, “당신은 어떻게 설날 기념나요?”? would be better said as, “당신은 어떻게 설날 기념하나요?”
2. And “black dragon” is grammatically correct as, “흑룡”! I will correct this on my Twitter account!
3. Yes, I received this Korean/English greetings list from the U.S. Korean Embassy. I’ll let them know!
Thanks again! You have been VERY helpful. How can I repay you?
I was born under the year of the dragon but I am not as lucky as I should be.