The Lunar New Year's holiday officially lasted for five days, ushering in the year of the blue sheep and allowing family members to enjoy a long holiday together.

Some people also took off Monday the 16th and Tuesday the 17th, giving them as many as nine days together with their family. Lunar New Year's, or Seollal, is often associated with a mass migration of people, which causes a lot of traffic congestion on the freeways. However, the congestion was less severe this year than it was in previous years. Perhaps because of that, people who went out with their family during the holidays appeared to be much more at peace and more pleasant than in other years.



People brought their children, dressed stylishly in Hanbok, traditional Korean attire, to the historic palaces of Seoul and enjoyed playing traditional pastimes, such as the game of yut, flying kites, kicking a shuttlecock around and throwing arrows into tall bottles.

There was a yut competition for families at the plaza in front of the National Folk Museum of Korea, on the Gyeongbokgung Palace grounds. Children happily threw large yut sticks while their parents moved the pieces on the human-sized board. On the other side of the museum grounds, some parents sat on the ground and made kites for their children. They focused all their energy on making the kites just so. They later smiled as their children flew the kites and ran around on the grass, taking many photos of their children at play.



Gyeongbokgung Palace was crowded with visitors and tourists on Lunar New Year's Day. Groups of mainland Chinese tourists filled the plaza in front of the Geunjeongjeon, the main hall at the palace. International tourists posed for photos with families in Hanbok all around the palace, and even tried on Hanbok themselves. Many visitors bowed on their knees on the ondol heated floor at the palace. They also played traditional games and watched the changing of the guards at Gyeongbokgung Palace, enjoying Seollal in Korea.

By Jeon Han, Limb Jae-un
Photos: Jeon Han
Korea.net Staff Writers
hanjeon@korea.kr