In North Korea, Eating Tteokguk and Performing Sebae on Lunar New Year... Revival of Lunar New Year in 1989

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] In North Korea, people eat rice cake soup (tteokguk) during Seollal (Lunar New Year), and in some regions, they also eat songpyeon and dumplings, as well as bindaetteok.

According to the Ministry of Unification's Facebook on the 12th, North Koreans have recently started eating tteokguk instead of manduguk (dumpling soup), and in Pyongan and Hwanghae provinces, they eat 'bansae,' which is called songpyeon in South Korea, and 'nokdujijim,' known as bindaetteok in the South, as traditional Seollal foods. They also add pork, chicken, or pheasant meat to tteokguk, and for songpyeon, they knead rice flour or wheat flour in hot water to make a thin dough like dumpling skins, then fill it with kimchi, napa cabbage, pork, tofu, and other fillings.

They also make rice cakes shaped like silkworm cocoons called jorangtteok (jorang-i tteok) or steamed rice cakes called sirutteok, and it is known that many people visit nearby restaurants to buy special Seollal dishes such as Pyongyang cold noodles (naengmyeon) or hot pot (jeongol).

The external propaganda media "Chosun Today" also reported that specialized restaurants in Pyongyang city, such as Okryugwan, Cheongryugwan, and Pyongyang Myeonok, prepare more traditional foods like cold noodles, pheasant noodle soup, nokdujijim, and sinseollo for Seollal. It also introduced that Pyongyang's tteokguk shops plan to sell various types of tteokguk and traditional rice cakes such as honey glutinous rice cakes and jeolpyeon to meet citizens' demand.

Similar to South Korea, festive scenes unfold where families, relatives, and neighbors exchange greetings. Children dress in beautiful clothes and perform sebae (New Year's bow) not only to family and relatives but also to village elders, receiving sebaetdon (New Year's money) in return. However, unlike South Korea, there is no custom of performing ancestral rites (charye) during Seollal or preparing gifts to visit parents or relatives living in other regions as part of the "great national migration" homecoming tradition.

In North Korea, to travel to regions other than one's residence, a travel permit must be issued. Since COVID-19, additional checkpoints have been installed nationwide, further restricting movement compared to before. Moreover, with last year's floods reducing crop yields and worsening the economic crisis, this year's Seollal is expected to be spent in a more subdued atmosphere than usual.

Officials sometimes visit the Pyongyang Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where the bodies of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il lie in state, or statues of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il across the country to lay flowers, but for ordinary citizens, paying respects is voluntary, not mandatory.

With the Seollal holiday, many North Korean residents have also enjoyed traditional folk games such as kite flying, yutnori, and jegichagi in parks or squares, games that are gradually disappearing in South Korea.

In the past, Chairman Kim Il-sung designated the lunar New Year as a "feudal remnant" and set January 1 of the solar calendar as the New Year. However, in 1989, National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il emphasized the inheritance of tradition and revived the lunar New Year. Since 2003, a three-day holiday starting from Seollal has been given, and since 2006, the official name for the lunar New Year holiday has been "Seollal." In North Korea, the "greatest national holidays" are not folk holidays like Seollal or Chuseok but rather the "Day of the Sun," Kim Il-sung's birthday (April 15), and the "Day of the Shining Star," Kim Jong-il's birthday (February 16).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.