This weekend Seoul was eerily quiet. Shops were closed and streets were empty. It looked like a small town in America on Christmas Day. Everyone was out of town, visiting relatives, celebrating the Lunar New Year (commonly called Chinese New Year). Many Koreans, especially children, dress in hanbok, traditional Korean clothing. The actual holiday was Sunday, though families gathered all weekend. On Friday we celebrated with our preschoolers. Everyone one of them came dressed in Hanbok. It was really pretty to see all the colors and the kids were so proud of thier outfits. Even all of the teachers got to wear hanboks.
On Lunar New Year is is customary for the children to bow to their grandparents. There is a special way for boys to bow and a special way for girls. After bowing, they only rise when their grandparents have spoken for them to do so. Then, the grandparents speak a blessing of luck to the grandchildren and then give them money. Traditional food to be eaten that day is DukGuk (pronouced duckgook) Duk is rice cake. Guk is soup. It's pretty tasty.
I also saw on the news that many people went to the alter that I have a picture of from my DMZ tour. (See DMZ blog for photo) Many went to this alter near the Freedom Bridge to bow to their relatives in North Korea.
Here is the link to the rest of the Lunar New Year photos.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=149388&id=584949759&l=aaf4ba0597
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