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  Korea and China are neighboring countries that are geographically close and have had close relationships politically, culturally, and historically. Specifically, they formed a common culture of Confucian culture and Chinese character culture and maintained a framework of agricultural culture based on the same calendar. In this aspect, the two countries shared cultural homogeneity in many ways.

However, there are also distinctive cultural characteristics depending on the lifestyle of the nation and the mindset of the community. The most representative of this is their holidays. The terms or the framework of holidays in both countries are fundamentally similar as they have semantic time units based on the same calendar. But the actual aspects of the holidays are very different and their meanings are often not identical. Koreans refer to the first day of the year as “seol” and the Chinese refer to this day as “chūnjié.” What are the similarities and differences in the first holidays of the new year between the two countries?

Origin of seollal and chūnjié

  New Year’s Days in Korea and China were in an indisputable position as a traditional holiday in the traditional lunisolar calendar. However, seollal in Korea was stigmatized as an old custom that had to be overthrown due to the introduction of the Western calendar and for political purposes of modernization theory and it was relegated to the name gujeong (old holiday). Seol changed its name from gujeong to Folklore Day in 1985. It took 105 years to recover its original name seollal in 1989.

  Chūnjié had traditional holiday terms such as Yuándàn, Yuánchén, and Zhìshǒu. The term chūnjié began to be used in 1914 when the Western calendar was adopted during the Republic Of China days and the Provisional Government of the Republic of China decided to call Yuándàn of the lunar calendar as chūnjié. This also emphasizes the meaning of “a holiday welcoming the spring.” During the Cultural Revolution in 1967, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China announced that “This year’s chūnjié will be excluded from public holidays.” and encouraged the public to “spend a revolutionized chūnjié.” As such, chūnjié was no long a holiday. After the Chinese economic reform in 1978, the traditional cultures steadily returned and chūnjié was designated as a public holiday in 1980. The Chinese government registered chūnjié as “national intangible cultural heritage” on May 20, 2006.

Customs with similar deeds but with different meanings

  Seollal or chūnjié are both important holidays but their basic notion is different. Seollal essentially means the first day of the first month of the new year. With this in mind, some tries to read into the meaning of “an unfamiliar day.” However, I find it hard to agree with this idea. Rather, considering the custom of gaining one age on the new year’s day, age is seollal and seollal is age. Thus “seol” could be interpreted as “year.”

  China’s chūnjié, which is said to have originated from a ritual to worship the sky during the Yao and Shun period, means a holiday observed as a time to drive out “Nián,” a half-dragon and half-lion. Nián is a mythical beast that sleeps for 365 days a year and wakes up on the last day of the year to come down to the human world and eat people. This beast is known to hate the color red and loud noises. In celebration of the new year, people put up red letters and set off firecrackers to drive out Nián and to greet a safe new year. This custom is to celebrate the new year and the basic idea of welcoming the new year is different from the one of Koreans.

  The eve of seollal or chūnjié is just as important as Seollal. Mugeun sebae (old year’s bows) on the eve is one of the important customs just like the sebae (ceremonial bows) on seollal. On the night of the eve, “suse (staying up all night to greet the new year)” must be followed. While suse is done in Korea to stay up all night to welcome the new year, in China, it is to safely chase away nián and celebrate. This is why jiǎozi (Chinese dumpling) is eaten in China after midnight to celebrate their safety in greeting the new year. Jiǎozi in Chinese characters is 餃子 (gyoza in Japanese) and the pronunciation of Zi (子) of jiǎozi and the zǐ of zǐshí (子時), which means the first hour of the 24 hours, are the same and thus this tradition has the meaning of replacing (交替, jiāotì) in the context of farewell to the previous year and greeting the new year by eating jiǎozi.

  It is natural to exchange new year’s greetings in celebration of the new year. Sebae is exchanged regardless of the age hierarchy and the adults give sebaetdon (money for new year’s bows) to children as a custom to share blessings. Meanwhile, this custom in China is to drive away bad spirits. Traditionally, sebaetdon in China originated from a custom in the Han dynasty to the money-shaped ornaments that were given for exorcism. Then Yèqián (brass coin) tied with red thread was given which was known as Yāsuìqián. The character “zhì (歲),” has the same pronunciation as “suì (祟),” which means disaster or curse, and yāsuìqián was understood as money that suppresses disaster. Therefore, giving yāsuìqián in exchange for sebae was to suppress any imminent disaster to children.

  Chinese today give the money in a red envelope and the color red is also a symbol of exorcism. Yāsuìqián changed its name to “hóngbāo” which emphasizes the red envelope. There was also a seol custom with an idea of exorcism in Korea. Munbae is a traditional seasonal custom that is not common in modern Korea. It was a custom to drive away any disasters. Munbae refers to the painting placed on the gate of the house as a custom to protect the house from evil spirits by placing pictures or letters on the gate, the passage to the outside world. It is also known as sehwa (drawing to prevent disasters and celebrate the new year) and generally drawings or letters of dragons and tigers. A dragon and tiger were attached to the left and right doors of the gate as a pair and this was often known as yonghomunbaedo, a dragon and tiger drawn on both gates.

  On the other hand, China seeks a more diverse approach. These approaches include chūnlián, which is placing a red paper written with meaningful phrases in black or gold, and jiǎnzhǐ, which is papercutting of images or various objects that represent joy and auspiciousness and placing the character “fú (福, luck).” Fú (福), a commonly seen character, is written on the red rhombus-shaped paper and placed on the gate, walls, and lintel. At times this is placed upside down. The upside-down letter fú (福) refers to “fú dǎo (福到, hallway),” indicating that it will serve as a hallway for good fortune to arrive. This is a homophone in a form of wordplay.

Tteokguk (sliced rice cake) and jiǎozi

  It is natural to eat certain food in holidays. Korea’s tteokguk and China’s jiǎozi are typical meals on New Year’s Day and sechan (food for treating New Year’s guests). They are food eaten on special occasions and have different meanings than other foods. Korea’s tteokguk is a soup made with thinly sliced garaetteok (rice cake stick) and is used for sechan as well as a memorial service on New Year’s Day. It is also interpreted to symbolize health and prosperity due to its long and white form or as a symbol of financial fortune for resembling an elongated shape of yeopjeon (coins in chain), and it is also a symbol of the Sun to suggest the customary saying of getting one year older by eating tteokguk. It is a holiday meal with a very simple idea.

  Jiǎozi is China’s sechan that corresponds to tteokguk. Jiǎozi is not an unfamiliar name as it is known as a Chinese dumpling or gyoza. What is interesting is that although modern Chinese people eat jiǎozi after midnight on New Year’s Eve it was not chūnjié food before the Ming dynasty. Jiǎozi is food more commonly eaten in the northern region including Northeast China, North China, and Northwest China. The southern region ate fish as a means of spending a rich and relaxing year. Jiǎozi is food from the northern culture but steadily became chūnjié food after the mid-Ming dynasty. It is said to have become chūnjié food because jiǎozi resembles yuánbǎo, an old currency of China. They believed eating jiǎozi that resembles yuánbǎo can bring wealth and family members gathered on chūnjié and prayed to become wealthy by making jiǎozi together. Jiǎozi ultimately became a symbol of prosperity and harmony.