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Korean New Year Traditions: Seollal, Tteokguk, Sebae and Zodiac

Korean New Year traditions explained: tteokguk that adds a year, the sebae bow, fortune customs like Tojeong bigyeol, and how Seollal links to your zodiac.

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Seollal (설날) is the Korean Lunar New Year. The main traditions are a family ancestral rite called charye, a bowl of tteokguk (rice-cake soup) that symbolically adds a year to your age, and sebae, a deep New Year bow to elders, who answer with good wishes and pocket money. Many families also play yutnori, and plenty of people check their fortune for the year ahead.

Seollal is also when most Koreans casually welcome the new zodiac animal. That makes it the natural meeting point of food, family and fortune.

Here is what each custom means, where your ddi (띠, zodiac animal) fits in, and how the saju calendar differs from the holiday one.

When Seollal happens

Seollal falls on the first day of the lunisolar year. That is usually the second new moon after the winter solstice, somewhere between late January and mid-February. In South Korea it is a three-day public holiday: the day before, the day itself and the day after. Many people travel back to their hometowns to see their parents and grandparents.

Recent and upcoming dates:

Seollal has a complicated history. It was suppressed during the Japanese colonial period, when January 1 was pushed as the official New Year. In South Korea it was fully restored as a national holiday in 1989. The Korean words for the two new years still reflect this: sinjeong (신정 新正, “new new year”) for January 1 and gujeong (구정 舊正, “old new year”) for the lunar one.

Tteokguk: the soup that makes you a year older

Tteokguk (떡국) is a clear soup of thinly sliced rice cakes, usually in a beef broth. It is often topped with strips of egg, seasoned meat, gim (dried seaweed) and a drop of sesame oil. Regional versions include Kaesong’s twisted, cocoon-shaped joraengi tteokguk and a Jeju version made with jeolpyeon (patterned rice cakes).

The symbolism is simple and lovely:

Eating tteokguk on New Year’s morning traditionally gives you one sal (살), a year of age. A 19th-century book of seasonal customs, the Dongguk sesigi (동국세시기 東國歲時記), mentions a playful way of asking someone’s age: “How many bowls of tteokguk have you eaten?” The word seol (설) itself shares its roots with sal, “years of age.”

A modern footnote: in 2023 South Korea officially switched to counting age in international years. People still joke about the soup, though. Nobody wants to skip it.

Sebae: the New Year bow

Sebae (세배 歲拜, “New Year bow”) is the moment children look forward to most. Dressed up, often in hanbok, younger family members make a deep traditional bow to grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles. They say:

새해 복 많이 받으세요 (saehae bok mani badeuseyo), “Please receive lots of good fortune in the new year.”

Elders reply with words of blessing or advice, called deokdam (덕담 德談), and often with sebaetdon (세뱃돈), crisp new banknotes, sometimes tucked into a small silk pouch. In earlier times the gift was more often rice cakes and fruit.

Charye (차례 茶禮), the ancestral rite on New Year’s morning, comes first in many households. Tteokguk is served to the ancestors as part of the meal, then shared by the living. Food costs have risen, and some families now keep the rite small and simple.

Games, food and the rest of the day

After the formal part, the holiday turns cozy. Common dishes include:

And games:

Fortune customs: checking the year ahead

The New Year is peak season for fortune-telling in Korea. Korean media have long described December through February as the busiest months, around both January 1 and Seollal.

Tojeong bigyeol (토정비결 土亭秘訣). This is the classic New Year reading. It is a divination book attributed to the Joseon scholar Yi Ji-ham (1517–1578), pen name Tojeong. It turns a person’s birth date into trigram-based verses for the year. Historians note that the book may only have appeared in the 19th century under his name. Either way, reading your yearly “Tojeong” became a much-loved New Year custom.

Saju consultations. Many people also have their saju (사주 四柱, four-pillar chart) read for the new year. Surveys suggest the habit is widespread. A 2026 Embrain Trend Monitor survey of 1,200 Koreans aged 13 to 69 found that 62.3% had used a fortune-telling service. Notably, 73.3% said they take only the advice worth hearing, as a reference.

The first full moon. On the 15th day of the first lunar month, Jeongwol Daeboreum (정월대보름), the first full moon of the year, brings its own wishes for a lucky year. In a sense, the New Year mood lasts two weeks.

Where your zodiac fits in

Seollal is when most Koreans say the zodiac animal changes. Greeting cards, store displays and New Year TV all feature the incoming animal. In 2027 that will be the Goat.

Saju follows a different clock, though. The chart’s year changes at Ipchun (입춘 立春, “start of spring”), a solar term around February 4. Depending on the year, Ipchun can fall before or after Seollal:

So a baby born between those two dates has the new animal in their saju chart but may still be called by the old one at the family table. Both answers are part of Korean life.

FAQ

What do Koreans eat on Seollal?

The signature dish is tteokguk, a clear soup of sliced white rice cakes, often topped with egg, meat and seaweed. Eating a bowl traditionally adds one year to your age. Families also serve jeon (savory pancakes), japchae (glass noodles) and dishes from the ancestral rite, and the table varies by region and by household.

What do you say during sebae?

The standard greeting is “saehae bok mani badeuseyo,” meaning “Please receive lots of good fortune in the new year.” You say it as you bow, or just after. Elders usually reply with a few words of blessing called deokdam, and often with sebaetdon, New Year pocket money for children and younger relatives.

Does the zodiac animal change on Seollal?

In everyday Korean custom, many people treat Seollal as the day the new zodiac animal begins. Saju uses Ipchun instead, the start-of-spring solar term around February 4, because its year and month pillars follow the sun. When the two dates differ, people born between them can have different animals depending on the rule.

What is Tojeong bigyeol?

Tojeong bigyeol is a traditional Korean book for New Year fortunes, attributed to the Joseon scholar Yi Ji-ham, known as Tojeong. It turns a birth date into verses for the coming year, organized by month. Scholars debate when it was actually written, but reading your yearly Tojeong became a much-loved New Year pastime.

Try it with the Moon Rabbit

Here is a Seollal-friendly way to start the year: draw your free saju card with the Moon Rabbit, then see which tteok you are. There is a rice cake for every day master, and it goes nicely with a bowl of soup.

Saju is a cultural tradition, not a science. SajuBunny readings are for fun and self-reflection, not professional advice.

Sources

For fun and self-reflection. Saju is a traditional way of looking at yourself, not a prediction or professional advice.

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