seollal (설날) — Korean Word Meaning | HallyuWords

Culture — Entry No. 0241

설날

seollal · noun

Culture intermediate

설날

seollal

[SULL-nal]

nounintermediate

Meaning

Korean Lunar New Year, observed on the first day of the first lunar month (late January or February). Seollal is one of Korea’s two most important national holidays — families reunite, wear 한복 (hanbok), perform morning ancestral rites (차례, charye), and children bow deeply to elders (세배, sebae) in exchange for blessings and 세뱃돈 (sebaetdon), cash gifts in decorative envelopes. The essential holiday food is 떡국 (tteokguk), rice cake soup that symbolizes gaining a year of age.

K-Pop & K-Drama Context

BTS released ‘2!3!’ with Seollal wishes woven into its outro, and the song became one of fandom’s most emotionally significant holiday tracks. TWICE has released annual Seollal greeting videos in hanbok that routinely trend on fan communities worldwide. In ‘Hospital Playlist,’ the Seollal episode follows the five doctor friends navigating holiday duties at the hospital and family obligations simultaneously — a storyline that resonated deeply with viewers who work through major Korean holidays.

Example Sentences

설날 아침에 어른들께 세배 드렸어요.

Seollal achime eoreundeulkke sebae deuryeosseoyo.

I bowed to the elders on Seollal morning. (드리다 is the honorific form — using 줬어요 here instead would sound disrespectful and awkward to Korean ears)

떡국 먹어야 한 살 더 먹는 거야.

Tteokguk meogeoya han sal deo meongneun geoya.

You have to eat tteokguk to gain another year. (said with warm teasing — it ties food directly to identity and the passage of time in a very Korean way)

세뱃돈 얼마 받았어?

Sebaetdon eolma badasseo?

How much New Year’s money did you get? (a completely normal question among cousins — no taboo, just excited comparison between kids)

⚠️ Don’t use seollal when…

1) Seollal is not January 1st — Korea observes both solar New Year (양력설) and lunar Seollal, but they fall weeks apart and carry completely different cultural weight; wishing a Korean friend ‘Happy New Year’ in early January without a separate Seollal greeting later can feel like missing the real celebration. 2) The 세배 bow has a specific posture — hands stacked at the forehead, a deep prostration — and is only performed toward elders during major holidays; casually imitating it outside that context, or doing it with the wrong hand position, can come across as disrespectful.

🎵 Heard In

K-Drama: Hospital Playlist (슬기로운 의사생활) — the Seollal episode shows the five friends balancing emergency shifts and family obligations, capturing the bittersweet reality of working through Korea’s most important holiday.
K-Pop: BTS — ‘Spring Day’

💡 Did You Know? Under Korea’s traditional age-counting system (세는 나이), every Korean became one year older on Seollal — meaning the entire country aged simultaneously on the same day; Korea officially unified to the international age system in 2023, but the cultural memory of this collective birthday persists strongly.

ℹ️ Editorial Note: The cultural context and example usage are for educational reference only. Artist names, song titles, and drama references are used descriptively to illustrate vocabulary in context. This content is AI-assisted and reviewed for accuracy. For official information, please refer to the respective artists’ or studios’ official channels.

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