{"id":53,"date":"2009-01-02T06:44:41","date_gmt":"2009-01-02T10:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/?p=53"},"modified":"2012-01-31T03:33:07","modified_gmt":"2012-01-31T03:33:07","slug":"yut-nori-%ec%9c%b7%eb%85%b8%eb%a6%ac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/korean\/yut-nori-%ec%9c%b7%eb%85%b8%eb%a6%ac\/","title":{"rendered":"Yut Nori (\uc737\ub178\ub9ac)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yut nori (\uc737\ub178\ub9ac<\/strong>) is a traditional Korean game played on New Years.\u00a0 In Korea, New Years is a holiday that lasts roughly three days.\u00a0 Technically speaking the official New Years is designed as January 26th of this year.\u00a0 That’s because on the lunar calendar, the new year begins on the 26th of January.\u00a0 Sometime during the New Years celebrations, Korean families have this tradition of spending time by playing traditional games.\u00a0 The most popular game is Yut nori (\uc737\ub178\ub9ac<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

This game is really interesting.\u00a0 First off, this game is often hand made.\u00a0 The board on which the game is played is really not a board at all.\u00a0 It’s a piece of cloth with some markings on it.\u00a0 It’s so inexpensive that families of all income levels can participate.\u00a0 The board, or rather the cloth is called malpan (\ub9d0\ud310<\/strong>).\u00a0 The markings on the malpan (\ub9d0\ud310<\/strong>) indicate stations.\u00a0 Before I get into that, you’ll need a mal (\ub9d0<\/strong>) or a board piece.\u00a0 The board piece can be made of anything.\u00a0 It can be a button, some coins, marbles, rocks, etc.\u00a0 Anything goes.<\/p>\n

Next, you’ll need four sticks.\u00a0 These sticks need to be a particular shape.\u00a0 You can either carve some wood by hand or buy them.\u00a0 Each stick has to have a flat side and a round side.\u00a0 Here’s the interesting part: whether the sticks face up or down determine the number of stations the player\u00a0can move.\u00a0\u00a0First you toss the sticks in the air and let the sticks fall to the ground.\u00a0 If three sticks have the flat side facing down\u00a0and only one out of the four sticks have the flat side facing up, this is called do (\ub3c4<\/strong>).\u00a0 The particular positions of the sticks are named after animals.\u00a0 In this case do (\ub3c4<\/strong>) means pig.\u00a0 A do (\ub3c4<\/strong>) allows a player to move one space.<\/p>\n

When two out of the four sticks have the flat side facing up and the other two have the flat side facing down, this is called ge (\uac1c<\/strong>) or dog.\u00a0 Ge (\uac1c<\/strong>) is worth two spaces.\u00a0 If one stick has the flat side facing down and the other three sticks have the flat side facing up, it’s called gol (\uac78<\/strong>) or sheep.\u00a0 Gol (\uac78<\/strong>) is worth three spaces.\u00a0 If all four sticks have the flat side facing up, this is called yut (\uc737<\/strong>).\u00a0 Yut means cow and is worth four spaces.\u00a0 If all four sticks have the flat side facing down, it is called mo (\ubaa8<\/strong>) or horse.\u00a0 This is worth five spaces.<\/p>\n

The first person to reach the end is the winner.\u00a0 This game can be played by all ages.\u00a0 If you like making crafts you might also enjoy making this game as well.\u00a0 Whenever I play this game with my cousins it always turns into a family war!\u00a0 No, I’m just exaggerating, but it can get pretty competitive.\u00a0 At least with this game I don’t go to jail or have to forfeit my property as I have to do in Monopoly.\u00a0 Yeah I know it’s just a game, but when that happens I always get so stressed out!<\/p>\n

Wanna see how it’s played?\u00a0 Here’s a youtube video about it:<\/p>\n