Seollal in Korea (February 1st 2017)

We arrived at Inchon International Airport early on the morning of January 10th. After about an hour and a half in the immigration line we headed outside. We were away from the wind and rain but the cold Korean air certainly had a bite. We took the airport express bus back to Dongbaek where we layered on whatever we had and made the brisk 15 minute walk back to Ohma's place.

This year Lunar New Year fell on January 28th.
It had been 10 years since we had been in Korea for this day so it was important to be around this year with the family and take part in some of the old family traditions.

 

In Korea, Seollal is one of the most important holidays of the year and most people try to return home to spend this time with relatives and to honour their ancestors.

Families typically celebrate the holiday by gathering together and preparing large amounts of food. The most ceremonial ritual on this day is seh bae (a deep bow to the floor). Traditionally, families begin by doing seh bae to deceased ancestors and making food and drink offerings to their spirits.

In some families seh bae may just involve grown-ups and children bowing and paying respect to their elders, beginning with deep bows to the oldest living generation.

Children receive gifts of money and words of wisdom and everyone wishes each other blessings for the New Year. As for us,  this year of the Rooster was brought in by spending most of our time simply eating. I guess the same could be said about some holidays in Canada for many.

Altogether we spent three and a half weeks back in Korea. It was great to spend some more time with family and friends which included a visit to Iteawon where we were able to catch up with some old friends from the  Suwon University days.

During the last week we took a short jaunt to Jeju Island where we got a kick out of seeing snow on the palm trees. It was funny to see; however, not having proper winter clothes made for some chilly amusement. At this point we realized after having had about four months of near perfect travel weather we were in a slight weather slump.

After Jeju we travelled around Challanamdo, the most South Western part of the peninsula. Here we moved by bus and boat to places like Haenam and Mokpo. Our Korean Island hopping tour was highlighted with a nice stop down on the small island of Bigeumdo. 

Here we were able to get totally off the beaten path and visit a rural area of Korea where few foreigners ever go. 

It gave us a chance to see some extended family and help out a little on the spinach farm. 

Although, it may have been still cold,  the few days here left me feeling like I had experienced Korea in a special way I never had during my many years of living there.

Anyway that was enough winter for us for this year. We left Korea again early on the morning of February 4th.