Solnal is one of the two most important and widely celebrated holidays in Korea (the other is Chusok). Solnal is, like western new year, a time for new beginnings and reconciling old differences (except that Koreans probably take this more seriously than we do). Like most Korean holidays, Solnal has very specific traditions, including food, games, and rituals.

At the end of the preceding workday, the holiday exodus begins. The big cities empty out and the highways are crowded with vehicles. Trains and buses sell out to the last square centimeter of standing room, as Koreans head for their ancestral homes (normally the home of the eldest living male). There they'll pay homage to their living elders, and tend to the graves of family members who have died.

One of the Solnal legends says that if children go to sleep on the eve of the new year, their eyebrows will turn white. So they have a good excuse to stay up all night (or at least try to). Meanwhile, the parents hang a straw rice sieve (pokchori) on the door or gate. This is supposed to bring good luck and drive away evil spirits.

One such spirit is Yakwangi, who's supposed to be abroad on Solnal eve. According to the tales, what he wants more than anything else is shoes! If he finds yours, and they fit, he will carry them off. To defeat him, you must keep your shoes inside -- in fact, put them as high in the house as you can.

For the best insurance against Yakwangi, make sure that rice sieve is hung by the door. Yakwangi will look for your shoes, but find the sieve. "What's this?", Yakwangi wonders. "It has so many eyes!" (He thinks the sieve's holes are eyes.) And he tries to count the eyes, but soon loses track and starts all over again. And again. And again. So it goes all night long. By and by Solnal dawns, and like most spirits Yakwangi has to hide from the day. You still have your shoes!

But I digress.

Traditionally, on Solnal morning, Koreans dress in new, traditionally styled clothes, or solbim, as a symbol of the new year's fresh start. The first order of the day is charye, a ceremony which honors the ancestors. The family gathers at the elder's house, and they set up a special screen and table. On the table they place ancestral artifacts and food offerings. Male family members bow deeply. After the ceremony is over, the family takes the food offerings as a meal.

The next traditional ritual is sebae, the paying of regards to the eldest living family members. The younger people of both sexes bow to the older, and wish them health and happiness for the new year. After this, the parents and grandparents give the children a little money. Traditionally, this was in the form of newly minted coins. Nowadays it's often coupons and gift certificates (which allow the parents some control over how the kids spend their haul).

It's practically a requirement to eat ttokkuk (rice cake soup) or ttok-mandukuk (rice cake soup with dumplings) on Solnal. It's said that the person who fails to eat his ttokkuk won't grow a year older (some westerners might consider that a reason to skip the soup!). In fact, although western age-tracking has become more common in recent years, traditionally Koreans reckoned their ages by how many lunar new years they'd experienced. Thus, Solnal is everyone's birthday. Should someone ask you, "How many dishes of tokkuk did you eat today?", the correct answer is not "Two," but rather "I am ____ years old today."

The rice cakes used in ttokkuk are not like the fluffy, popcorn-like ones sold in US markets, but rather are small, solid discs made from pounded rice flour. They have a somewhat bland, slight sweet, pleasant taste. If the soup has mandu (dumplings), you're supposed to eat one for each year of your age. Good luck if you try! This tradition is obviously easier for kids to maintain.

Other foods for Solnal include yakshik (sticky sweet rice), chapchae (noodles, vegetables and meat), and pindae-ttok (mung bean pancakes). Solnal drinks include shik-kye (rice punch) and sujong-gwa (persimmon punch).

Solnal festivities still often include traditional games, if only as a demonstration. Noltuigi is a girls' jumping game played on boards that look like western seesaws. The fulcrum of the seesaw's lever is a rolled-up straw mat. One girl is at each end of the seesaw. Each jumps in turn, and when she comes down, the other girl is launched into the air. The object of the game is to see who can jump higher. This game makes western seesawing look relaxing!

By the way, noltuigi's origins are a little less celebratory than the lunar new year would suggest. It dates to the Choson Dynasty, a restrictive era when women were often confined to their family compounds. By jumping high enough at noltuigi, they could see over the compound's walls, if only briefly.

Paengichigi, or top-spinning, is a pastime for the boys. They use a wooden stick to keep the top in motion, and the one whose top spins the longest is the winner.

In chegichagi, children of both sexes kick a chegi, which is made by covering a coin or other heavy object with a cloth so that the result has a heavy end and a light end (like a western shuttlecock). The object is to keep the chegi in play as long as possible.

Yutnori is played with 4 wooden sticks, round on one side and flat on the other. The players divide into two teams and throw the sticks. The way they land (flat or round side up) determines how the play moves around the game board. The team which moves all four sticks around the board first wins. This game was derived from divination rituals.

You'd think the weather would get in the way, but kite flying (yonnalligi) is a traditional Solnal pastime. Its origins date back to the Silla Kingdom (57 BCE to 668 CE).

In tuho, the players try to cast arrows into a narrow-necked jar. Tuho was originally an aristocrat's entertainment, but today it's played by people from all walks of life.

In truth, tuho, and the other games, aren't played by everyone. Sure, some people still celebrate Solnal and other holidays with these traditions. But today some of the folk practices are in danger of being lost because of modern influences, western and otherwise. To preserve traditions, the government often sponsors folk performances and games in various locations around the holidays.

Daeborum is the first full moon of the lunar new year, the traditional beginning of the agricultural year. Koreans have held a festival on this day since the Shilla Dynasty.

Spirits are said to be abroad in the night of this moon, so the tradition is to go looking for them with lanterns (these days it's more often kids with flashlights).

Foods associated with Daeborum are ogak-bap (made with rice, two types of millet, and red and black beans), yakshik (sticky sweet rice with chestnuts, dates, and pine nuts) and mug-un-namul (dried vegetables, herbs, and mushrooms). Eating nuts on Daeborum -- one for each year of your life -- is said to help frighten away the bad spirits and bring good luck. You're supposed to crack them with your teeth to ensure good dental health for the year! And drinking cold wine (kwibalki sul) is supposed to sharpen your ears for good news.

Daeborum will take place on 6 February in 2004.

The first day of the second lunar month is a traditional day off for farm laborers. Ceremonies used to be carried out on this day to drive caterpillars from the roofs of houses (which were often thatched). Traditional foods include songpyon, crescent-shaped rice cakes filled with sweet red bean paste.

Hanshik, or "Cold Food Day," takes place on the 105th day after the winter solstice (Tongji). It's a day for cleaning one's ancestors' graves and performing traditional ceremonies in honor of the dead. It's also a time for planting, especially trees and vegetables.

Eating cold food on this day is a tradition brought from China. The legend says that a Chinese emperor banned all fires on this day, in honor of one of his statemen who had died in a fire. Today the holiday is more often noted in Korea than in China.

The Buddha's Birthday, or chop'ail, takes place on the 8th day of the fourth lunar month (26 May in 2004). Colorful lanterns, often with prayers written on them, are hung to symbolize the Buddha's enlightenment. Buddhist temples are open for guests, and serve food to all. Monks and laymen alike practice tapdori (circling the pagoda). Those who are having bad luck offer prayers, make food offerings, and "wash the Buddha" (ladle water over a statue of Buddha).

Tano is one of Korea's most ancient rites, noting the beginning of summer and hot weather. The name comes from its date. Tano means "first fifth," which refers to the fact that it's the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.

Korea can be a hot, humid place, and it's said that if one begins drinking the herb tea aheho-taeang on Tano and continues through the summer, he will be less troubled by the heat.

Legend has it that during the Choson Dynasty, one of the kings called upon craftsmen to make fans, and saw to it that everyone was given a fan at Tano time. Today the fans come from factories (sometimes in Vietnam or China), but the visitor can still get a fan at Tano -- for a price, of course.

In ancient times, Tano was a day of rest and recreation. Farmers would take the day off, and it was the one time that married women, severely constrained by Confucian tradition, were allowed to leave their family compounds and visit their birth families.

Tano's traditional games are swinging (for women) -- they swing standing up -- and wrestling (ssirum) for men. There are also ancient rituals connected to the shamanic worship of the mountain gods. Surichi-ttok, or rice cake cooked with mugwort leaves (which are supposed to repel evil spirits) and chunchi-kuk (fish soup) are the traditional Tano foods. Women wash their hair in iris water, and place iris sticks in their hair.

Today Tano, like many traditional Korean holidays, is not celebrated as vigorously as in the past. However, the city of Kangnung, on Korea's east coast, is famous for its colorful multi-day festival for Tano each year. For 2004, Kangnung Tano will take place on 22-26 June.

Chusok, the Harvest Moon Festival, has been called Korea's equivalent of the US's Thanksgiving. It's held on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Lunar Year, which is usually in September or October by the Western calendar. In 2004, Chusok will take place on the 28th of September.

As with most major Korean holidays, most people travel home to pay their respects to their parents and ancestors, and tend to the gravesites of the dead. At these tombs and burial mounds, Koreans make offerings of new rice, fresh fruit, and other freshly harvested foodstuffs. Special foods for the holiday include songpyon, crescent-shaped (for their similarity to the shape of the moon) rice cakes filled with sesame, chestnut, or red bean paste, and songi (mushrooms).

Like Thanksgiving, Chusok is a time of great feasting. Americans have their football games, and Koreans also have traditional holiday games: Kanggangsuwollae (traditional dance), tug-of-war, and Kobuk-nori (in which two men dress up as a tortoise and go from house to house; each household is expected to give them food and drink). Some people in rural areas still hold to the old custom of climbing the hills and swinging lighted torches in circles to greet the harvest moon.

Tongji, or Winter Solstice, falls on the 22d of December by the western calendar. The traditional food of Tongji is ppat-chuk, a thick red bean soup with round rice-cake balls. This isn't just eaten; traditionally it was also poured round the outside of the house to drive away evil spirits (the color red is supposed to repel them).