Seollal and Chuseok: Korea's Major Holidays

Korea's two great holidays

The biggest holidays in Korea are Seollal and Chuseok. Seollal marks the lunar new year, and Chuseok, also called Hangawi, is an autumn festival of thanks for the harvest. Both are days when family members who live apart gather at their hometown or their parents' home to honor their ancestors and share food. The solar New Year on January 1 is also a public holiday, but it is just one day, and Seollal carries far more weight as a family occasion. If it helps, think of them as something like Western Thanksgiving and New Year rolled into two lunar holidays.

Lunar dates and three-day breaks

Because Seollal and Chuseok follow the lunar calendar, their solar dates change every year. Each holiday lasts three days: the day before, the day itself and the day after. If one of those days falls on a Sunday or another public holiday, the next weekday becomes a substitute holiday. When the break connects to a weekend it gets longer, and many people travel abroad. Check that year's holiday dates before you fix your travel dates.

• Seollal: lunar January 1, usually between late January and February
• Chuseok: lunar August 15, usually between September and early October
• Holiday: three days, the day before, the day itself and the day after
• Substitute holiday: when a day overlaps a Sunday or another holiday

What people do at Seollal

On the morning of Seollal, families hold ancestral rites and then perform sebae for their elders. Sebae is a deep, kneeling bow with new year greetings; elders reply with words of good wishes and give children sebaetdon, gift money. Breakfast is tteokguk, a soup of thinly sliced rice cake, so closely tied to the holiday that people say you only gain a year once you eat a bowl. Families may play traditional games such as yut, and some wear hanbok, though everyday clothes are more common now.

What people do at Chuseok

At Chuseok, families hold ancestral rites with the year's new grain and fruit and visit their ancestors' graves, a custom called seongmyo. Before Chuseok, many families also go to trim the grass around the graves. The signature food, songpyeon, is a half-moon rice cake made from rice flour dough filled with sesame or beans and steamed on a bed of pine needles. Frying various kinds of jeon, savory pancakes, is a big part of holiday cooking. At night there is a custom of making a wish while looking at the full moon.

How the holidays are changing

How the ancestral table is set varies by family and region, and more households now cut down the food or skip the rites altogether. The burden of holiday cooking falling on one side of the family, and the so-called holiday nagging, when relatives ask about marriage and jobs, become talking points every year and are frequent subjects in dramas and variety shows. More people also use the break to travel as a family or simply rest. It helps to know there is no single way to spend these holidays.

If you travel during the holidays

The holiday breaks are when more people move around Korea at once than at any other time. Highways jam badly as people head to their hometowns and back, and train and express bus tickets sell out early. Big cities, on the other hand, tend to get quieter.

• Book intercity tickets as early as possible
• Traditional markets and small restaurants often close on the day itself
• Many convenience stores and large shopping complexes stay open, but check hours
• Check palaces and museums with each institution's official notices

Other public holidays

Besides Seollal and Chuseok, Korea has several public holidays tied to its history. Buddha's Birthday follows the lunar calendar and moves every year; the others are fixed solar dates. Holiday designations and substitute holidays can change, so confirm exact dates on the government's official calendar.

• January 1 New Year's Day, March 1 Independence Movement Day, May 5 Children's Day
• Lunar April 8 Buddha's Birthday, June 6 Memorial Day
• August 15 Liberation Day, October 3 National Foundation Day, October 9 Hangul Day
• December 25 Christmas Day

Holiday greetings

Around Seollal, the most common greeting is saehae bok mani badeuseyo, "may you receive many blessings in the new year." It works from the end of the year through Seollal, so if you learn only one phrase, make it this one. At Chuseok, people say jeulgeoun Chuseok bonaeseyo, "have a happy Chuseok." An old saying wishes that every day could be just like Hangawi, no more and no less, which shows how strongly Chuseok stands for abundance. Around the holidays, people also send gift sets of fruit or household goods to colleagues and acquaintances.