설날 (seollal) — The Day One Bowl of Tteokguk Adds a Year to Your Age

설날

설날 (seollal) means the first day of the first lunar month — the biggest holiday in Korea, marking the start of a brand-new year. Because it follows the lunar calendar rather than January 1st on the solar one, the date wanders from year to year: late January some years, mid-February others. Which is why foreigners living in Korea end up giving New Year’s greetings twice. Once on January 1st, and again a few weeks later.

You usually notice 설날 coming from the streets before you notice it on the calendar. Gift sets stack up like towers at the supermarket entrance, the news reports holiday traffic times down to the minute, and the neighborhood hair salon is booked solid right up to the day before the break. At the office, “See you tomorrow” quietly turns into “Have a good holiday.” And if you’re watching a Korean drama and suddenly every character is wearing 한복 (hanbok) and making a deep formal bow, that episode is nine times out of ten set on 설날.

The important thing is that 설날 isn’t simply a word for “the first day of the year.” Movement is built into it. People living in Seoul head down to Busan, to Daegu, to Gwangju. Relatives you’d otherwise see maybe once a year end up sitting together in one room. So the emotional temperature isn’t a single layer either — gladness and exhaustion show up together. That’s exactly why, when you ask a Korean 설날 어떻게 보냈어요? (seollal eotteoke bonaesseoyo) — “How did your Seollal go?” — the answer runs long. Food stories, traffic stories, and the story about the relative who asked when they’re getting married.

English subtitles render it as Lunar New Year, Korean New Year, or just Seollal. It falls on the same day as the lunar new year in China and Vietnam, but the way it’s actually observed is completely different, so writing it phonetically as Seollal is becoming more and more common.

Checking the National Institute of Korean Language Dictionary

The National Institute of Korean Language’s Basic Korean Dictionary defines 설날 this way.

One of Korea’s traditional holidays. On the first day of the first lunar month, family and relatives gather in the morning to perform the ancestral rite 차례 (charye) and offer the New Year’s bow 세배 (sebae) to their elders. They eat 떡국 (tteokguk) and enjoy folk games such as 윷놀이 (yunnori), 널뛰기 (neolttwigi), and 연날리기 (yeonnalligi). — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

Notice how the whole running order of the holiday is packed into that one paragraph of definition. Gather in the morning → perform 차례 (charye) → offer 세배 (sebae) → eat 떡국 (tteokguk) → play. A real 설날 morning generally unfolds in exactly that order.

If you also look at the same dictionary’s entries in other languages, you can see how each language community understands the holiday.

[en] Seollal; Lunar New Year — One of the national holidays in Korea; on the first day of the year by the lunar calendar, families and relatives gather to hold an ancestral ritual called Charye, and the young perform Sebae, a traditional Korean bow, to their elders; people have tteokguk, sliced rice cake soup, and enjoy folk games such as yunnori, a traditional Korean family board game, as well as neolttwigi, riding a standing see-saw, and yeonnalligi, kiteflying. — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

[ja] ソルラル。きゅうしょうがつ【旧正月】 — 韓国の伝統的な節日の一。陰暦1月1日で、当日の朝には家族や親戚が集まって先祖を敬う儀式を執り行い、年長者に対して新年のあいさつを行う。日本の雑煮に当たる「トックク」を食べ、ユンノリ、ノルトゥィギ、凧揚げのような民俗遊戯を楽しんだりする。 — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

[es] Seollal, Día del Año Nuevo, el primero de enero, el primer día del año — Uno de los festivos en Corea. El 1 de enero en el calendario lunar, las familias y los parientes se reúnen para llevar a cabo un ritual ancestral llamado charye y los jóvenes se inclinan ante los mayores para mostrarles respeto. Todas las personas toman sopa de tajaditas de arroz y se divierten elevando cometas y con juegos como el balancín coreano o el yunnori, un juego de mesa tradicional para la familia. — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

[zh] 春节 — 韩国的节日之一。日期为农历1月1日，这天早晨家人、亲戚聚在一起举行祭祀，给长辈拜年。还吃年糕汤、玩掷柶游戏、跳跳板、放风筝等民俗游戏。 — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

It’s fun that the Japanese version explains 떡국 as “the equivalent of Japan’s zōni,” while the Chinese version goes all the way and renders the holiday with its own word, 春节. A dictionary always translates from where the reader is standing.

There’s no Portuguese translation in this dictionary. So let us note clearly that the sentence below is not a dictionary quotation but our own rendering — Seollal, o Ano Novo Lunar coreano: um dos maiores feriados da Coreia, no primeiro dia do primeiro mês lunar, quando a família se reúne, realiza o ritual ancestral charye, os mais novos fazem a reverência sebae aos mais velhos e todos comem tteokguk.

Now let’s look at the actual usage examples printed in the dictionary, exactly as they appear.

한국에서는 설날에 가래떡으로 떡국을 끓여 먹는다. (hangugeseoneun seollare garaetteogeuro tteokgugeul kkeuryeo meongneunda) In Korea, people make tteokguk from garae-tteok and eat it on Seollal. — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

This is the most basic sentence there is for explaining 설날 food in one line. If you’re introducing the holiday to a foreign friend, this single sentence is enough. 가래떡 (garaetteok) is a long white cylindrical rice cake, and when you slice it on a diagonal and drop it into broth, you get 떡국.

우리는 설날에 차례를 지내면서 조상님께 집안의 가호를 빌었다. (urineun seollare charyereul jinaemyeonseo josangnimkke jibanui gahoreul bireotda) On Seollal we performed charye and prayed to our ancestors for the protection of our household. — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

차례 is the morning rite offered to ancestors. The verb 빌었다 (bireotda), “prayed,” matters here. 설날 is less a day for congratulating and more a day for asking — a day you ask for a peaceful year ahead. This connects directly to the “This Sounds Off” section coming up.

설날 아침에 우리 가족은 한복으로 옷을 갈아입고 할아버지 댁에 갔다. (seollal achime uri gajogeun hanbogeuro oseul garaipgo harabeoji daege gatda) On Seollal morning my family changed into hanbok and went to my grandfather’s house. — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

These days not many city families go all the way to full hanbok, but there are still households that dress at least the children in colorful striped hanbok. And note 할아버지 댁에 갔다 (harabeoji daege gatda), “went to grandfather’s house” — on 설날 the direction of travel is always from the younger generation toward the older one.

설날 연휴라서 개업을 하고 있는 상점을 찾기가 어려웠다. (seollal yeonhyuraseo gaeeobeul hago inneun sangjeomeul chatgiga eoryeowotda) Because it was the Seollal holiday, it was hard to find a shop that was open. — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

This is where visitors to Korea get caught out the hardest. On the holiday itself, the neighborhood restaurant, the clinic, and the little corner shop are all closed. Big supermarkets and department stores mostly shut on the day of 설날 too. Only convenience stores and a few franchises stay alive.

예전에는 설날이 되면 마을의 어르신들을 찾아뵙는 어른 공경 문화가 있었다. (yejeoneneun seollari doemyeon maeurui eoreusindeureul chajaboemneun eoreun gonggyeong munhwaga isseotda) In the past, when Seollal came around, there was a culture of respect for elders in which people would go and visit the seniors of the village. — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

Notice the 예전에는 (yejeoneneun), “in the past,” attached to the front. The custom of going door to door bowing not only to your own family elders but to all the neighborhood elders has faded a great deal. Even a single dictionary example sentence has the passage of time folded into it.

See It in Real Conversation

Scene: Seollal morning. Sebae is finished, and the whole family is settling in around the tteokguk table. Emily has come to Jun-kyung’s house as a holiday guest.

준경: 에밀리, 얼른 앉아. 설날 아침엔 떡국부터야. 다 불겠다. Emily, sit down quick. On Seollal morning, tteokguk comes first. It’s going to get soggy.

에밀리: 응, 가! 나 한국에서 설날 쇠는 거 올해로 열다섯 번째다? Coming! You know this is my fifteenth Seollal in Korea?

준경: 야, 그럼 떡국 열다섯 그릇 먹은 거네. 너 우리보다 나이 많은 거 아니야? Whoa, that’s fifteen bowls of tteokguk. Doesn’t that make you older than us?

에밀리: 그 계산 진짜 억지야. 근데 이거 한 숟갈 뜨면 새해가 시작된 느낌 나긴 해. That math is a real stretch. But honestly, one spoonful of this and the new year finally feels like it started.

준경: 우리 할머니가 그러셨어. 떡국 국물이 뽀얘야 한 해가 깨끗하게 시작된다고. My grandmother used to say the broth has to be pale and clear so the year starts clean.

에밀리: 아, 그래서 어머님이 아까 고명을 그렇게 조심조심 올리셨구나. Ah, so that’s why your mom was laying the garnish on so carefully earlier.

There’s one more expression worth taking away from this. 설을 쇠다 (seoreul soeda) is an old verb meaning “to observe, to spend a holiday.” Saying 설날을 보내다 (seollareul bonaeda) isn’t wrong, but 설을 쇠다 makes you sound like someone who’s been using Korean for a long time. It works the same way for Chuseok: 추석을 쇠다 (chuseogeul soeda).

This Sounds Off

✗ (On the morning of January 1st, to a Korean coworker) 오늘 설날이네요! 새해 복 많이 받으세요. It’s Seollal today! Happy New Year.

✓ (On the morning of January 1st) 오늘 신정이네요. 설날은 다음 달이죠? It’s Sinjeong today. Seollal is next month, right?

→ In Korean, 설날 points only to the first day of the first lunar month. January 1st on the solar calendar is 신정 (sinjeong), or simply 새해 첫날 (saehae cheotnal), “the first day of the new year.” If you say 설날 on January 1st, the other person will pause for a second and go check a calendar.

✗ (While making your New Year’s bow) 할아버지, 설날 축하드려요! Grandfather, congratulations on Seollal!

✓ (While making your New Year’s bow) 할아버지, 새해 복 많이 받으세요. Grandfather, may you receive much blessing in the new year.

→ This is the mistake you get from translating “Happy New Year” word for word. Korea’s 설날 isn’t a day for congratulations but a day for asking blessing, so pulling out the word 축하 (“congratulations”) in front of an elder makes the whole moment land wrong. When you bow, the correct line is always the one and only 새해 복 많이 받으세요 (saehae bok mani badeuseyo).

Example Sentences by Situation

1. To a coworker asking about your holiday plans

이번 설날에는 큰집에 안 가고 그냥 집에서 쉬려고요. (ibeon seollareneun keunjibe an gago geunyang jibeseo swiryeogoyo) This Seollal I’m not going to the head family’s house — I’m just going to rest at home.

큰집 (keunjip) refers to the household of the eldest on the father’s side. Since the 차례 rite is usually held at the 큰집, this word comes up naturally in any conversation about 설날. These days more and more people travel or simply rest at home over the holidays, and adding the adverb 그냥 (geunyang), “just,” when you announce that choice is what makes it sound Korean.

2. When you suddenly get sick during the holiday

설날 연휴에 문 여는 병원이 있을까요? (seollal yeonhyue mun yeoneun byeongwoni isseulkkayo) Would there be any clinic open during the Seollal holiday?

This may honestly be the most practically necessary sentence for a foreigner living in Korea. The answer is usually “the emergency room is open.” The 문 열다 (mun yeolda) in this sentence means a shop or clinic being open for business, and it’s used far more often in daily life than the 개업을 하고 있는 (gaeeobeul hago inneun) from the dictionary example.

3. To a friend after the holiday

저 이번 설날에 처음으로 한복 입고 세배했어요. (jeo ibeon seollare cheoeumeuro hanbok ipgo sebaehaesseoyo) This Seollal I wore hanbok and did sebae for the first time.

This is a sentence foreigners invited to a Korean family’s holiday end up using a lot. 세배하다 (sebaehada) is used straight as a verb. For reference, the bowing form differs slightly between men and women, and if it’s your first time, copying the person next to you is the fastest route.

설날 is the name of a holiday, so it doesn’t have separate polite and casual forms. What it does have is a whole set of related words for the same occasion, and the difference in temperature between them is fairly large.

Expression	Tone & intensity	Where it’s used
설날 (seollal)	Neutral, standard	News, official documents, everyday speech — anywhere. The safest default
설 (seol)	Short and casual	Spoken. Attaches to other words: 설 쇠러 간다, 설 연휴
구정 (gujeong)	Dated register, contested nuance	Older generations, some media. Not used as the official name
신정 (sinjeong)	Neutral	Only for January 1st on the solar calendar. Pairs with 설날 almost like an antonym
새해 (saehae)	Broad and inclusive	Covers lunar and solar alike. 새해 복 많이 받으세요
명절 (myeongjeol)	Umbrella term	For referring to 설날 and 추석 together

If you remember only one row from this table, make it 구정. The meaning gets through, but in official settings and in writing, the current standard is to use 설날. The reason lies in the cultural background below.

Cultural Background — The Weight of One Bowl of Tteokguk

The order of a 설날 morning is mostly fixed. You perform 차례, you offer 세배 to your elders, and the elder receiving the bow gives words of blessing along with 세뱃돈 (sebaetdon), New Year’s money. It’s the morning Korean children are wealthiest all year. Then comes the tteokguk.

There’s an old bit of arithmetic attached to 떡국: you have to eat a bowl of this soup to gain a year of age. Which is why Korean kids whine “나 두 그릇 먹을래 (na du geureut meogeullae)” — “I want two bowls” — on 설날 morning, and why adults ask a person’s age sideways with 떡국 몇 그릇 먹었니 (tteokguk myeot geureut meogeonni), “how many bowls of tteokguk have you eaten?” The joke Jun-kyung threw at Emily in the dialogue above is precisely this piece of arithmetic. For reference, since 2023 Korea’s official age reckoning has been unified around international age, but this particular expression is still alive and still making the rounds over the holiday table.

There’s also a standard explanation for why 떡국 is made with white rice cake — white means starting the year clean, the long-drawn 가래떡 means longevity, and the round slices resemble old coins, so they mean wealth. Three wishes stacked onto a single dish.

The name itself has a history. For a stretch of the twentieth century, Korea pushed the solar new year to the front and shoved the lunar one to the back, calling it 구정 — “the old new year.” Then in 1985 it became a public holiday under the name 민속의 날 (“Folklore Day”), and by 1989 it had recovered both its original name, 설날, and a three-day holiday. Those three syllables printed on today’s calendar are a name that came back. As for the etymology of the word 설 itself, there are several competing explanations and no settled consensus — so rather than picking whichever story sounds best, we’ll simply leave that blank here.

The day before 설날, 섣달그믐, is also called 까치설날 (kkachi seollal), “the magpie’s Seollal.” Thanks to the 1920s children’s song 〈설날〉 by Yun Geuk-yeong, the phrase became familiar even to Korean children. Yesterday was the magpie’s new year and today is ours — a way of giving the giddy mood of holiday eve a separate name of its own.

In dramas, 설날 is also reliably the episode where conflict erupts. Reply 1988 has a scene where holiday food gets passed back and forth plate by plate among the neighbors in the alley, and those traveling plates say more than the dialogue does. The grammar of a holiday scene is generally this: the people working in the kitchen and the people sitting in the living room get split apart, that imbalance piles up quietly, and then someone says one thing too many. That’s the backdrop to why the phrase 명절 증후군 (myeongjeol jeunghugun), “holiday syndrome,” is so widely used in Korea now. So when you bring up 설날 with a Korean friend, it’s better to leave the question open — ask how they spent it rather than assuming it was fun.

Today’s Quiz

Emily is making her New Year’s bow to Jun-kyung’s grandfather. Which is the most natural thing to put in the blank?

에밀리: 할아버지, ____________.

① 설날 축하드려요! (Congratulations on Seollal!) ② 새해 복 많이 받으세요. (May you receive much blessing in the new year.) ③ 오늘 구정이시네요. (Today is Gujeong, isn’t it.)

The answer is ②. Option ① is a literal translation of “Happy New Year,” but 설날 is a day for asking blessing rather than offering congratulations, so it lands wrong in the middle of a bow. Option ③ has the problem of the dated word 구정, but beyond that the sentence isn’t even a greeting. For what you say to an elder while bowing, memorize the single line 새해 복 많이 받으세요 and you’re set for life.

Definitions and example sentences are from the National Institute of Korean Language’s Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr); that portion of this post, including our translations, is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 KR.