The Spring Festival is not only a national celebration in China, but also a traditional festival in Korea. Because of the same lunar calendar, every year on the 30th day of the New Year, as China's neighbor, Koreans also have a family reunion to eat New Year's Eve dinner. At this time, the size of hundreds of thousands of hotels throughout South Korea, almost all of them "hang up business", the formation of a unique Korean custom.
As Korea is the Chinese character cultural circle countries, the Chinese New Year customs and China have a lot of similarities. Many Koreans, especially the older ones, know their phases, and the heavenly stems and earthly branches are very popular in Korea, for example, in 2005, the year of the "chicken", which Koreans call the "year of the second year", and in 2006, the year of the "dog", which Koreans call "the year of the second year". "For example, in 2005, the year of the Rooster, Koreans call it the Year of the Dog, and in 2006, the year of the Dog, Koreans call it the Year of the Cthulhu, which can be found in newspapers and Spring Festival greeting cards. The rice cake eaten in Korea during the Spring Festival is also a food made of glutinous rice, which is similar to the Chinese rice cake.
Interestingly, according to Korean custom, people cannot sleep on the night of New Year's Eve. The whole family must stay up with their ancestors to welcome the sunrise on the first day of the year. Otherwise, one's eyebrows will turn white.
Ancestor worship and filial piety
Spring Festival in Korea is called "old first day". Koreans say they must go home to visit their relatives before the 30th day of the new year. Every year, before New Year's Eve, there is a picture of tens of millions of troops moving back to their hometowns. The former traffic in Seoul suddenly quiet down; usually full of hotels also hung on the "even rest closed" sign, there are also posted on the "first x business" notice.
Korean restaurants, "thirty do not open the door" custom has a long history. Koreans are very concerned about the New Year's Eve dinner at home, and dining at home. They believe that the Spring Festival is to pay homage to ancestors, the inheritance of filial piety. Having a reunion dinner on New Year's Eve is not only rare, but also symbolizes the prosperity of the family. Even restaurant owners say that since all families go home for New Year's Eve, chefs and waiters are no exception. Home to pay homage to their ancestors compared to opening a business to make money, or the former is more important.
Daughters-in-law are the busiest
Korean New Year's Eve dinner is a lot of attention to detail, the most important feature is that all meals are traditional food, and all from the hands of the daughter-in-law. The whole family will eat "five grains rice", that is, cloud beans, soybeans, small beans, black beans and rice made of a mixture of rice. In addition, the family also makes rice cakes and wraps Korean-style steamed buns. In addition to grilled meat, a dozen kinds of wild vegetables or kimchi are served as the main course. On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, the whole family holds a solemn and solemn "ritual and yearly worship". After the ceremony, the first meal is eaten - rice cake slice soup.
Koreans collectively refer to the Spring Festival food as "New Year's dinner", rice cake soup is one of the most representative. In ancient times, Koreans worshiped the sun and the pure white color. The white round rice cake slices not only represent the sun, but also symbolize the old and the new. Eating a bowl of it on the morning of the first day of the year symbolizes welcoming the brightness of the sun and the purity of all living things.
The busiest people on New Year's Eve are the daughters-in-law of each family. They not only have to prepare the New Year's Eve dinner, but also take on the responsibility of making all the "annual meals" during the Spring Festival. How well the daughters-in-law cook has become an important criterion for "good daughters-in-law". When making the "New Year's Meal", each daughter-in-law shows her skills and encourages each other. When the dishes are put on the table and praised by the family, the daughters-in-law are rewarded for their hard work.
Giving each other food as gifts
During the Lunar New Year, Koreans perform activities such as making a new year's makeup, making a blessed strainer, and catching ghosts in the night light. The first greeting at a New Year's Eve meeting is "Many blessings for the New Year". In terms of recreational games, the most popular games among Korean families are "Moksik" and "Hwatu" (equivalent to Chinese dice and poker). In addition, each family prepares food such as honey and oil fruit, cinnamon soup, eight treasures of rice and slices of meat to receive friends and relatives who come to pay tribute to the New Year.
Koreans also have a custom of exchanging gifts on Lunar New Year's Day, with steak, yellowtail, traditional sweets and other foods being the mainstay. The gifts are placed in boxes and wrapped in four-square silk cloths of various colors, which are very beautiful.