It is the first day of the lunar calendar. On the morning of New Year's Day,
food and drinks are offered to ancestors. This is called New Year's Offering ("Jeongchochare"). After the ceremony, younger ones formally bow to their
elders, and this is called Sebae. Then they have the first breakfast of the
year. For the breakfast, they eat Ddeokguk (rice cake soup).
After breakfast, people visit their elder relatives to pay respect with a formal bow. Then the elders wish them blessings while treating them with food or drinks, and especially to children, they give money as presents. Children usually anticipate this New Year's Day for money, good food, and a nice outfit. Traditional games people play on the day are teeter-tottering, Yut, or kite flying.
As the life of Koreans was based on agriculture, the moon, goddesses, and the earth were worshipped as symbols of fertility. On the night of January 15th (Lunar Calendar), they had special ceremonies or games related to the moon such as greeting the moon, fortune-telling by the moon, burning the moon house, and others.
They have special rice made of five kinds of grains and nine vegetable dishes for this day. They had special drinks which were supposed to be good for their ears. They also ate various kinds of nuts, which were collectively called "Bureom." These made big cracking sounds in one's mouth which were thought to prevent skin troubles for the year. children also played a special trick on their playmates : you call your friend's name and if she/he answers, you say, "You just bought all of my heat of this year's summer." People believed that they would not feel hot in the year's summer as they had sold their heat to others with the trick.
On Dano. May 5th (Lunar Calendar), farmers took a day off from the field for joint festivities marking the completion of sowing, while women washed their hair in special water prepared by boiling iris flowers in the hope of preventing misfortune. Dano was a major holiday in the old days, but interest today has greatly decreased except in a few provinces.
Chuseok is August 15th (Lunar Calendar), which has the brightest full moon in the year. People make rice cakes and taro soup with newly harvested rice and taros, and visit their ancestor's graves to offer food and fresh vegetables such as persimmons, chestnuts, or dates to express their gratefulness for the harvest of the year. People also celebrate the day by having parties, drinking, dancing, and playing like tug of war, or traditional Korean wrestling.
Winter solstice on the lunar calendar is around November 29th when the day is the shortest and the night is the longest of the year. Koreans have different names for the day: when it falls in early November, it is called young winter solstice, when it is in mid November, it is middle winter solstice, and if it is in late November, it is called old winter solstice. People offer red bean porridge to ancestors and spread it over walls or gates. They believed that by doing so they cvould repel bad spirit. In the porridge, they also put small sticky rice ball, and could eat the balls as many their age.
Contents Source
http://www.korea.net/AboutKorea/Korean-Life/Festivals#pagePrint
