Archive for the year 2009
Deborum (대보름) Posted by Ginny on Jan 7, 2009
Deborum (대보름) is an up-coming festival celebrated on the fifteenth of January. This festival is based on the lunar calendar and means ‘great full moon.’ The locals believe that the first full moon appears on the fifteenth of January. Like many Korean festivals, there are always traditional activities that highlight the festival. For example there…
U-gong-i-san (우공이산) Posted by Ginny on Jan 6, 2009
Today’s post is going to feature a four letter Korean proverb for the New Year. As you know, four letter proverbs are represented by Chinese characters. Here are the Chinese characters for the four letter proverbs: 愚公移山. Let’s break this proverb down to its syllables. This character 愚 is pronounced as ‘u.’ It means foolishness. …
New Year’s Superstitions Posted by Ginny on Jan 5, 2009
The New Year is a time of insecurity and doubt for some people. To ensure a successful year Korean people may perform rituals that seem strange to Americans. Some of these rituals are performed out of habit. Some of them are performed to prevent misfortune. Whatever the reason, this post will be a combination of funny…
New Years Games Posted by Ginny on Jan 4, 2009
Koreans celebrate the New Year with many traditional games. Yay! Games! Seriously, who doesn’t like games?! Some of the games that I’m about to list are not actually games, they’re more like traditional activities that people perform during the New Year’s celebrations. Nonetheless, they’re quite fun and interesting, so remember to enjoy them and have…
New Years Food Posted by Ginny on Jan 3, 2009
Hi everyone! Let’s talk about what Koreans eat on New Year’s Day. The typical day of the New Year starts with breakfast. Breakfast consists of a rice cake soup called ddok-kuk (떡국). Ddok-kuk (떡국) is a soup made of beef broth with thinly shaped oval rice cakes. Actually, I’m not sure why Americans call ddok-kuk (떡국) a…
Yut Nori (윷노리) Posted by Ginny on Jan 2, 2009
Yut nori (윷노리) is a traditional Korean game played on New Years. In Korea, New Years is a holiday that lasts roughly three days. Technically speaking the official New Years is designed as January 26th of this year. That’s because on the lunar calendar, the new year begins on the 26th of January. Sometime during…
Sul (설) Posted by Ginny on Jan 1, 2009
Hi everyone! This is the first post for 2009! Todays is Sul nal (설날) or New Years Day in Korea. The typical phrase you’ll hear is sehe bok mani baduseyo (새해 복 많이 받으세요). Let’s break this phrase down so that we can understand this quirky greeting. Sehe (새해) means ‘new year.’ Bok (복) means…