설날: Korean Lunar New Year

A month ago, I was able to celebrate the Lunar New Year here in Seoul. Much like Chuseok, the city was very empty with nothing really open save a few stores and small restaurants. So unlike Chuseok, I was prepared, I was able to stock up on food before the grocery stores and restaurants started to resemble a ghost town and was even able to rope two of the guys from my program to go out sight-seeing with me on the actual day of Seoullal.

The city was really empty so we were able to get to the shrine in no time at all. Another perk to going to historical places on a national holiday was that it was free entrance to everyone (the normal price is 1000 won). But unlike a normal day where you go in with a  tour guide only since it is a working shrine, we had to go around ourselves, so I think we missed out on learning about the different things we were seeing because all we had to go on were the signs posted Korean with severely limited English explanation. Plus I have always loved being taken on tours and told all the hidden stores of the place!

The cool thing about the shrine is that it is a working shrine, meaning that even today they have ceremonies to honor the Royal Families of ancient Korea. So it was cool to see all the shrines and alters that were set up for us to see.

Another tradition for the Lunar New Year is that you need to eat Rice Cake soup in order to age a year. Well this proved a little difficult because as I mentioned before, most places where closed for the holiday with the people running them out of the city to their hometowns to take care of their family's ceremonial plots.  But find a place we did. It was not the best 떡국 but it counts in my book!

So that was how I spent my Lunar New Year here in Seoul. How did you all spend yours?