What is the Korean Lunar New Year holiday called?

The Korean Lunar New Year holiday is called Seollal. It is one of Korea’s most important traditional holidays and marks the first day of the Korean lunisolar calendar.

Seollal is typically observed around the second new moon after the winter solstice, so its Gregorian date changes each year. Families traditionally travel to gather together, perform ancestral rites called charye, wear traditional clothing such as hanbok, and exchange New Year greetings.

A signature food is tteokguk, a soup containing sliced rice cakes. Eating it traditionally symbolizes growing a year older. Younger family members also perform a formal bow, called sebae, to elders and may receive New Year’s money in return.

Seollal is easy to confuse with Daeboreum, but they are different holidays. Seollal begins the lunar year; Daeboreum arrives on the 15th day of the first lunar month and celebrates the year’s first full moon. Chuseok, another major Korean holiday, is an autumn harvest festival.