Does North Korea Also Get Time Off for Lunar New Year?...This Year a "Long Holiday" as It Overlaps with Kim Jongil’s Birthday

Celebrated again since 1989... From "feudal remnants" to "Our Nation First"
No hometown travel rush due to travel permits... Eating rice cakes and dumplings

Kim Jong Un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, attended the completion ceremony of the Onpo Workers' Rest Home in Kyongsong County on the 20th and praised the results of the remodeling. Korean Central TV Yonhap News

North Korea, which promotes its own "Korean-style holidays" inherited and developed in a socialist way, observes Lunar New Year differently from South Korea, where there is a three-day holiday. In North Korea, only the day of Lunar New Year itself is a day off. However, this year people are expected to enjoy a long holiday, as Sunday and the birthday of National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jongil, which is one of the major holidays, fall back to back.

According to a Yonhap News report on the 15th, after liberation from Japanese colonial rule, North Korea regarded traditional folk holidays as feudal remnants, and, in line with instructions from President Kim Ilsung, did not treat Lunar New Year and Chuseok as holidays.

Later, as Kim Jongil, chairman of the National Defense Commission, stressed "Our Nation First" as a way to safeguard the regime and ordered the restoration of folk holidays, North Korea began celebrating Lunar New Year again starting in 1989.

In 2003, a three-day official holiday was designated, but currently only one day is an official day off. This year there is a three-day break from Sunday the 15th to the 16th, Kim Jongil's birthday, and the 17th, Lunar New Year.

The North Korean authorities use Lunar New Year not only as an occasion to honor ancestors, but also as an opportunity to strengthen the system by reinforcing loyalty to the supreme leader.

Around Lunar New Year, North Korean residents visit places such as the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang, where the bodies of Kim Ilsung and Kim Jongil lie, or Mansudae Hill to lay flowers. Since a travel permit is required to go outside one’s place of residence, there is no traffic congestion caused by crowds traveling to and from their hometowns.

Unlike in South Korea, where most stores close during major holidays, restaurants in North Korea are said to be crowded with customers who come to eat New Year dishes. Famous restaurants such as Okryugwan and Chongryugwan, as well as regional food service bases, are known to prepare a variety of dishes for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Representative Lunar New Year dishes include rice cakes, dumplings, various types of jeon (pan-fried dishes), grilled meat, and sujeonggwa (a traditional cinnamon punch). Pheasant meat is added when cooking tteokguk (rice cake soup), but if pheasant is not available, chicken is used instead, which is said to be the origin of the saying "chicken instead of pheasant."

It is also different that most North Korean residents perform ancestral rites and New Year’s bows mainly on New Year’s Day according to the solar calendar. The custom of celebrating New Year’s Day by the solar calendar instead of the lunar calendar, which dates back to the time of Kim Ilsung, has continued to this day.

According to the Ministry of Unification, New Year’s greeting cards are usually sent once a year, mainly on New Year’s Day by the solar calendar. In North Korea, the greeting "Happy New Year" in the sense of "I wish you lots of blessings in the New Year" is less common than the expression "Congratulations on the New Year."

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