Korean Class holds a cultural event for Korean New Year

Students from Korean Class Pose for a picture.

By: Isabella Brusuzyan and Mariam Torosyan ‘24

Korean Lunar New Year is a holiday celebrating the first day of the lunar calendar. It is a very important day for Koreans and is celebrated in North and South Korea. The date of the Lunar New Year is different every year. It usually lands between January and February, and this year it was on February 10. In Honor of the Korean Lunar New Year, the high school Korean Class put together a presentation and celebrated in other cultural ways. 

Jericho Jacob, a senior in Korean Class, says “In the class, in January or February, whenever the lunar new year is, we usually put together a presentation on what the lunar new year is like. Pretty much about anything related to the new year, even about the animals, and the culture.” 

During this day, the Korean Class would have a feast and would be able to try different foods from Korea. Jericho says that after, the class would “learn new words and play cultural games.” Then, the Korean Class would teach students about the Lunar New Year, and why it is so culturally important. They also teach students certain words that are significant to the Korean culture and their meanings. A fun activity that Jericho also mentioned was that they teach students how to bow, just like in their culture. 

In Korean culture, on Lunar New Year, families would go home and get together. Jericho explains that “they would start cooking the important foods for the family and during the day they would do something like praise the elders and bow to our ancestors.” Another factor is the Korean Age system, where in their culture, you become one year older each Lunar New Year, rather than on your birthday. Under this system, birthdays and age aren't related to each other. People celebrate this by eating a soup made with rice cake called tteokguk. It is often considered that eating tteokguk is what allows people to age another year. 

As for the event, the Korean class did an amazing job demonstrating the Korean culture of this holiday! The presentation was amazing, and many hope to see more like this in the future!