Recipe #6- Extra-happy days!

Greetings Earthlings! 
What is MaSeoulPalette if we don't talk about festive seasons and double shots of extra-happy days? Traditional holidays bring people together and the main ingredients of these days are (traditional customs and practices, family, traditional clothing and last but not least [this is the highlight of the whole event] FOOD!) There are two exceptionally special days in Korea, namely Seollal and Chuseok and without further delay, let's venture and explore these holidays, shall we?!

1. 설날 (Seol-nal) [Reads as Seollal] 

Believe it or not, we Malaysians celebrate this holiday too but with an entirely different name. Falling as the first day according to lunar calendar, this day is called "Lunar New Year's Day" or Seollal and it lasts for three days. In Malaysia, this festival is often known as Chinese New Year (because of the majority of Chinese celebrating it).   

This celebration calls for a lot of preparations and memorial services [Charye] are performed to express their gratitude to their ancestors and pray for success. On top of that, the common gifts for Seollal are department store gift cards and cash. It's quite interesting to see the broad use of gift cards because it's not that popular in Malaysia. 
The morning starts with ancestral rite before proceeding with family gathering and feast on the ritual food. 

The two must-have dishes on the table are Tteokguk (rice cake soup) and Songpyeon (half moon shaped rice cakes filled with sweetened beans, red beans or chestnuts inside). The traditional symbolic meaning to eating Tteokguk during Seollal signifies adding a year to one's age. 

Tteokguk

These scrumptious looking rice cakes are called Songpyeon

In Malaysia, the common understanding and thrill about Chinese New Year is definitely the "angpau". The younger generations in Korea will pay respect to their elders [saebae] before presenting them with gifts. The elders will then offer their blessings and ........ give them 'saebetdon' in return (New Year's money).