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| A Colorful Korean Lunar New Year |
| On the history and practice of this national holiday |
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Robert Neff (neff)  |
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Published 2007-02-18 09:45 (KST) |
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Today, markets and department stores throughout Korea are filled with mobs of excited, but tired women shoppers pushing and shoving one another in an attempt to get the best buys on fruits, meats, and even alcohol in preparation for the Lunar New Years.
Korean women often spend two or three days prior to the Lunar New Year's cooking and preparing for the celebration. The older women instruct the younger women and girls on how to make the different foods and set the tables, but unfortunately many younger women are now too busy to spend much time in learning these preparations.
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FROM THE SECTION |
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| Families gather together to celebrate the Lunar New Year, often dressed in their very colorful and beautiful traditional clothing, with large meals made up of various dishes of colorful cakes, various spicy condiments and side-dishes, meats, fish, fruits, and, of course, alcohol.
The hours are whiled away with animated conversation, loud laughter, and drink. The children spend much of their time playing games or watching TV. If the parents are able to convince the children to put down the Gameboys or turn off the computers, the children, especially the younger ones, might play some of the traditional games.
Today's Lunar New Year's events differ greatly from those just over a hundred years ago. During the Joseon period, Lunar New Years was spent paying off your debts of the previous year, chasing away the evil spirits that might haunt you in the next year, and in combat.
Combat was seen in many forms. Small Korean boys battled each other with wooden tops, much like children throughout the world. Even now it is not overly uncommon to find small boys (and girls) playing with colorful tops in front of their homes or parents' businesses.
 |  | |  Cited at Korean boys flying kites, this image looks more Chinese than Korean. | | | ©2007 Photographed by Robert Neff |
Kites were also used in combat. Men and boys guided brightly colored kites through the air, each seeking to break the string of his opponent's kite. Often the string had pieces of broken glass glued to them in an effort to improve the owner's chances of victory.
However, the most celebrated New Year combat was Seokchon -- the stone battle. Villages and city districts formed large teams of young men and armed them with leather caps, straw armor, wooden clubs, slings and an abundance of small polished stones.
Then, in open fields surrounded by crowds of eager spectators (who often gambled on the event), the two sides would meet and the war would begin. Stones were hurled at one another by hand and with slings, and when the two sides drew close enough together, the wooden clubs were used with bone-crunching ferocity. These battles often raged for hours, and in some cases, days, and were only ended when one side was routed from the field. The results were horrific -- shattered teeth, broken bones and noses, severely bruised bodies, and occasionally deaths.
 | | | Stone Battle outside of Seoul circa 1902 | | | ©2007 Robert Neff Collection | |
These stone battles provided not only entertainment for the masses but also as a means of settling disputes between families, organizations, and villages.
When people were not battling one another they were battling the evil spirits and ghosts that were believed to be present everywhere. Hair that had been gathered from brushes and combs the previous year and safeguarded was now burned in small iron pots in an effort to remove mischievous household spirits. Mothers made small dolls out of straw into which all the household's bad luck was contained and then thrown into the streets for the animals and people to trample.
Some people affixed small coins to the dolls to tempt small children to pick them up and take them home, thus bringing bad luck into their families' homes. In the past I have been told by my Korean friends that I should spend any money I find before going home, this may relate to this old belief, or it may have just been my friends' desires to share in my good luck.
Bridges were also a part of the New Year's celebration. People believed that if you crossed the bridge once per year of your age that it would prevent you from suffering aches and pains in your legs and feet. Other preventive measures were also taken. Nuts were chewed to prevent boils and sores throughout the year. Pieces of paper with calamities of the previous year written upon them were given to small boys to burn in the belief that the same events would not reoccur.
 | | | | Korean woman coming from market in 1890s | | | ©2007 Photographed by Robert Neff |
While most of these old beliefs are no longer celebrated during modern Lunar New Years, it is comforting to know that some of the old traditions remain. Even though people often had very little, they were willing to share what they did have with their neighbors.
While I was writing this article I was interrupted by a soft knock at my door -- it was the elderly woman who lives in the apartment above mine with a small pot of Ddeokguk, a traditional Lunar New Year's food, and the kind wishes for me to have a better New Year. While I can not offer you, the reader, Ddeokguk; I can offer you my sincerest wishes that this New Years is better than the last.
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©2007 OhmyNews
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