The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) announced to host the Jeongwol Daeboreum Festival at Namsangol Hanok Village to celebrate the first full moon of the new year for two days from Sat, Feb. 4 to Sun, Feb. 5 after a four-year hiatus since 2019 due to the pandemic.
The festival will start at 10 AM on Sat, Feb. 4 to welcome Ipchun (lit. “onset of spring”), the first of 24 seasonal divisions that make up the lunar calendar, with select public participants hanging the ipchuncheop—calligraphy banners with greetings of good wishes and health for spring—on the front gate of Namsangol Hanok Village.
The festival will continue the following day starting at 2 PM on Sun, Feb. 5 to celebrate Jeongwol Daeboreum with visitors. The city will install a wish tree for citizens to write and hang up their wishes as well as hold the customary bureom-kkaegi event where participants can crack a sundry of nuts (i.e. peanuts, walnuts, pine nuts, chestnuts, ginkgo nuts) to wish for good luck and health for the coming year.
Then starting at 6 PM, the dance and percussion troupe Gwanggaeto Samulnori will put on an exciting performance that combines traditional Korean percussion with breakdancing. This program will be full of drumming, dancing, marching, and singing to not only entertain visitors, but also wish for happiness and health during the new year.
After the performance, the festival will culminate with the symbolic daljip-burning event starting at 6:30 PM where a collection of wishes written by visitors since last year’s winter solstice event will be set on fire in a pile of pine branches to burn away bad luck and pray for domestic tranquility with hopes of their wishes flying up into the sky.
Seoul is inviting the public to this year’s Jeongwol Daeboreum Festival at Namsangol Hanok Village to celebrate the annual event and directly experience seasonal customs all the while wishing for good luck in 2023.
Source: Seoul Metropolitan Government
