The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 23rd that, in celebration of the Lunar New Year holiday, a variety of events will be held at 22 overseas Korean Cultural Centers in 20 countries. These events will allow local residents to experience Korean New Year traditions such as bowing (sebae), rice cake soup (tteokguk), hanbok wearing, and traditional games.
In Asia, the Korean Cultural Center in Japan will offer bowing experiences, writing New Year’s wishes in Hangul, and traditional game festivals. The Osaka Korean Cultural Center will run activities like making rice cake soup with dumplings and sharing Korean New Year stories through picture books. In Shanghai, ahead of the New Year, they will host an e-sports tournament and conduct traditional Korean game experiences and food tasting events. The Vietnam Korean Cultural Center will offer five types of Korean traditional game experiences to students of the King Sejong Institute, while in Thailand, local students will bow to Korean War veterans to express gratitude, fostering goodwill between the nations. In Indonesia, traditional cultural performances such as samulnori and fan dance will be held, and participants born in the Year of the Snake will have a chance to try on hanbok during the lucky pouch and lantern-making events. Similar traditional game and food tasting events will be held in the Philippines and India.
European Korean Cultural Centers will also continue to offer events celebrating Korean New Year culture. The German center will host tteokguk tasting and bowing experiences, and introduce traditional games like yutnori and jegichagi. The Austrian center will showcase a K-pop cover dance performance in collaboration with Austria’s Hallyu club, “Namu Event,” alongside traditional cultural experiences. In Hungary, high school students are invited for New Year experience events, while in Poland, the center will collaborate with the local university’s Korean studies department for diverse cultural experiences. The Spanish, Italian, and Swedish centers plan to exhibit hanbok, and provide performances of traditional music like the gayageum, as well as offer cultural demonstrations such as ancestral rites, using the opportunity to promote Korean culture.
In the Americas and Australia, Korean Cultural Centers will hold various events to celebrate the New Year. In Washington, D.C., in collaboration with major cultural and artistic institutions like the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a “Korean Cultural Experience Week” will be conducted from February 1-7, allowing local families and Hallyu fans to simultaneously experience both traditional and contemporary Korean cultures. The Los Angeles Korean Cultural Center will offer traditional cultural performances, games, and hanbok experiences to provide locals with an opportunity to experience Korean New Year customs. In Canada, Mexico, and Australia, events such as tteokguk making classes and tasting, traditional game experiences, fan making, and hanbok experiences will be conducted to share the warmth and festivity of Seollal with locals.
Additionally, the Nigerian Korean Cultural Center will offer Korean cuisine and traditional game experiences for Seollal, and the UAE Korean Cultural Center will prepare events like a five-legged race, tteokguk tasting, and creating personal goals for the year.
Choi Bo-keun, head of the International Culture PR and Policy department of the Ministry, commented that “due to the recent airing of ‘Squid Game’ season 2, global interest in traditional Korean games like gonggi and jegichagi has increased,” and added, “we hope that through various events where people can directly experience our culture, locals in each country will come to understand our New Year culture and feel closer to Korean culture.”