January-the new year's day in korea

这篇文章选自《韩国风情录》这本书。文章介绍了韩国的传统节日——新年，以及韩国人民在新年里的一些风俗习惯。和中国一样，韩国实际上也过两个新年，而新年是韩国最盛大的两个传统节日之一。虽然每年的阳历1月1日和2日是法定的节假日，但大多数韩国家庭返乡团聚都是在阴历新年，即每年的1月末或2月初。和阳历新年一样，阴历新年也是辞旧迎新的日子。

Solnal (New Year's Day)--First Day of the First Month

This is one of the two biggest holidays in Korea.

Like China, Korea actually celebrates the New Year twice. While January 1st and 2nd are official holidays, most families make the cross-country voyage to their hometowns for the Lunar New Year, which falls in late January or early February. As in the West, this day sends off the past year and ushers in the new. Perhaps nobody appreciates the promise of a new start more than a Korean farmer.

For children, the most popular custom is dressing up in rainbow-colored silk hanbok and performing the sebae(New Year Bow) before all the elders of the family and wishing them pok(fortune) for the coming year. In turn, they are rewarded with golden words of advice and pocket money, the amount depending on their age and position in the family. This is one custom that is in no danger of dying out from rapid industrialization and urbanization, although its focus has shifted from paying calls of respect on elders to paying young children to be good.

Some of the other games that make this day special, but are losing ground to electronic forms of recreation, are a tug-of-war, kite-flying, see-sawing, and yut-nori, a kind of board game played with sticks.

Traditionally for girls over seven, the see-saw was their window to the world. New Year's Day used to be the only time of the year that girls could see over the courtyard walls. Nowadays, the see-saw is more a test of rhythm and balance than the social event girls looked forward to all year.

Jumping up and down on the low, flat board is devilishly more difficult than it appears. There is no fulcrum, so the momentum comes entirely from the timing of you and your partner's leaps.