Seollal- Another New Year

How are your New Year's goals coming? How about those resolutions? Maybe you were like me, and just thought about setting some goals and making some resolutions. Do you feel like you have already blown it? Do not despair. There is another New Year on the horizon. No- not 2015. That's more than 11 months away. I am talking about Seollal, or the Lunar New Year. It falls on January 31st this year and its the biggest Korean holiday other than Chuseok.

Lunar New Year is bigger than Christmas here. Much preparation ushers in this holiday. Markets are filled with people shopping for the ingredients used in traditional foods to honor their ancestors. They are particular about color, size, shape and freshness when it comes to fixing the food for the ancestral rites. They spend the entire day prior to the holiday preparing the food. Approximately 20 different types of foods are placed on the ritual tables. The main dish is tteokguk. It is a soup made with sliced rice cakes, beef, egg, vegetables and other ingredients. It is believed that each bowl eaten on Lunar New Year adds a year to your age. (Best diet plan ever!)

Traveling is a challenge because plane, bus and train tickets sell out early so Koreans can return to their homes of origin. Travel on the highway slows down to a crawl and it can take two to four times longer than normal to reach your destination. For us it simply means don't travel!

Koreans honor their ancestors with an array of food, deeply bow and express gratitude to them. Families exchange gifts also. The gifts may be department store gift cards or cash. They may give ginseng, honey or health products to their parents. They also give gift baskets filled with Spam (for real!), tuna, and hangwa (sweets).

Many Koreans dress in hanbok (traditional Korean dress) for Lunar New Year. Families play games, especially yutnori- the stick game. They tell stories and enjoy their time together.

I love learning about the Korean culture. I have heard so much about Lunar New Year from our Korean friends that I had to do a little research. Its exciting to read on-line the things we actually see and hear on this Korean adventure!

So, eat a bowl of soup, play some games with your family and celebrate Lunar New Year. You can also mix a little American tradition in and tend to those goals and resolutions!

Happy New Year... Again!

새해 복 많이 받으세요

Seh heh pok mahnee pah duh sae yo!

"New year's blessings please receive." 

 

Our first night in Daegu.

This is a common Korean New Year's greeting, and I love it. The shift in sentence structure creates a subtle but significant shift in meaning when translated from Korean to English.  To me it means - this new year will be filled with blessings which we are invited to receive. Heavenly Father has great blessings in store for each of us, but we must make an effort to recognize them and receive them. I love a new year. Clean slate. Blank page. Fresh start. What will the new year bring? I can't begin to imagine what new opportunities, changes, challenges or trials may come. I hope to see the blessings offered and accept the invitation to receive them.




A bird's eye view of our
temporary home town.

2013 was very eventful! Okay, that was an understatement. It was in many ways a life changing year for us. We began the paperwork process for another full time mission in January. We were as surprised as anyone else about that turn of events. It was at least seven months ahead of schedule. In fact we had nearly talked ourselves into waiting until early 2014 to begin serving a second mission. We spent Jan & Feb traveling to see family before we left at a still unknown time to our mission in San Diego. Then an unexpected phone call came and our mission suddenly also became "to parts unknown". The end of March we received the stunning and exciting news that we would serve in the Busan South Korea mission. Never heard of Busan, hardly knew anything about Korean. Except that North Korea was threatening nuclear warfare. Charming!

  

Some of the foods we
are learning to love.

A few days after receiving our mission call we left for the rest of our "goodbye to family" trip, or our "farewell torture tour". This round of our travels included a three week trip to Sao Paulo Brazil to visit Jake and family. It was one of those "pinch me" experiences. We had a wonderful time.

 

The series of goodbyes took it's toll on both of us. So many tears! Yet we were also looking forward with great anticipation to our Korea adventure. We have had one blog worthy experience after another in the six months we have been here. Meanwhile back at the ranch... or at least back in the USA... our family members have had their own adventures. Some trials, some changes and countless blessings. The most notable changes have been the migrations. This is actually a repeat of our first mission. While we served in Colorado six of our seven children moved. Two to different houses, the rest to different states. Since we left home for this mission on June 13th, two children have moved into different houses, one to another city and two more are changing jobs which will require them to move to a different state. Coincidence? I think not. At least they let us know their new addresses!

 

This is the year we go home. This is the year our mission is completed. We should be home surrounded by family next Christmas. I love that thought, but I am not trying to rush this year. We love our mission and especially the people we serve. We have 11 months of adventures left here, and I want to cherish each and every one. We have a Korea specific bucket list, which I may share with you soon.

 

We hope for a happy and healthy new year for all of you.

May we all recognize and receive the many blessings the new year brings.

All of them!

Whether they are gifts of prosperity or lessons cloaked in challenges,

may God bless us with a joyous and adventurous new year!