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New Year fortune in Korea: from Seollal to the first full moon

In Korea, the New Year does not arrive just once. There is January 1, there is Seollal, the Lunar New Year, and for saju there is ipchun, the start of spring. Between one date and the next, customs for attracting good luck pile up: readings of the year, games, bamboo strainers and nuts cracked under the first full moon. Here they are, in order.

Three starts to the year

January 1 is the official New Year, with its wishes and resolutions. Seollal (설날), the Lunar New Year, is the big family holiday, with mass journeys back to people's hometowns. And then there is ipchun (입춘), the start of spring in the solar calendar, around February 4. For saju, that is when the year and the animal truly change. At ipchun, many families write the phrase ipchun daegil (입춘대길, 立春大吉), something like "great fortune as spring arrives", and stick it on the front door. Three doors into the year: you can pick the one you like best, or celebrate all three.

Seollal morning

Seollal begins with rites for the ancestors, the charye (차례), and continues with sebae (세배): younger people bow deeply to their elders to wish them a good year, and receive kind words in return and, often, an envelope of money. Then everyone eats tteokguk (떡국), a soup with sliced rice cakes. Eating it is said to add a year to your age, so it is common to joke by asking "How many bowls of tteokguk have you had?" In the past, a bokjori (복조리), a small bamboo rice strainer, was also hung in the house to "scoop up" the year's good fortune.

Reading the year ahead

January is peak fortune season in Korea. The classic is the Tojeong Bigyeol (토정비결), which uses your age and lunar birth date to give you one of 144 readings, with verses for each month. Alongside it is sinnyeon unse (신년운세), the New Year reading based on saju, now offered by web portals, fortune apps and even banking apps. The charm of these readings is their timing: they arrive just when everyone is thinking about resolutions, and they put words and pictures to what each person hopes for from the year.

Games that also tell fortunes

The New Year holidays are game season. The most popular is yutnori, with its four wooden sticks and a board where pieces move depending on how the sticks land. Those same sticks are used for yutjeom (윷점): you throw three times and the combination, one of 64 possible, brings a message for the year. Some say the first throw stands for the year that is ending, the second for New Year's Day and the third for the first full moon. People also jump on the neolttwigi (널뛰기), a kind of seesaw where two people take turns leaping, and fly kites, a classic image of winter skies.

Daeboreum: nuts and fire under the first full moon

On the 15th day of the first lunar month comes Jeongwol Daeboreum (정월대보름), the first full moon of the year, with its own good-luck customs. In the morning people crack bureom (부럼): walnuts, chestnuts and pine nuts, to wish for healthy, blemish-free skin all year. In the countryside there was jwibulnori (쥐불놀이), setting fires along the edges of fields to drive away pests, and daljip taeugi (달집태우기), a great bonfire; both asked for a good harvest and sent off the negative. There was also the custom of crossing bridges, dari balgi (다리밟기), to wish for a year without stumbles. If you want to celebrate far from Korea, a handful of nuts and a full moon will do.

FAQ

When does the year change in saju?

At ipchun, the start of spring in the solar calendar, around February 4. Not on January 1 or on Seollal. That is why people born early in the year should double-check their animal.

What is a bokjori?

It is a small bamboo strainer used for washing rice. At New Year it was hung in the house to scoop up good fortune, just as the strainer scoops up the grains.

What do people eat for good luck?

At Seollal people eat tteokguk, the rice cake soup that, by tradition, adds a year to your age. At the first full moon they crack walnuts, chestnuts and pine nuts, the bureom.