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New Year

New Year’s Day in the Solar Calendar is called New Year’s Day. New Year’s Day in the lunar calendar is the first holiday of the year as a new month when the year begins.

Yoon Geuk-young

‘The New Year’s Day of Magpie was yesterday~. Our New Year’s Day is today~. I wear a really pretty pigtail ribbon~. I also wear new shoes~. My sister’s jeogori is yellow~. My little brother’s jeogori with stripes of many colors~.’

This song, which is sung on New Year’s Day for a very long time, represents ‘New Year’s Day’ enough to appear in our elementary school textbooks. “New Year’s Day,” which was released in 1924 with lyrics and composition by Yoon Kuk-Young, a writer of children’s songs and juvenile stories, is likely to have been sung by any Korean at least once.

magpie

It’s really sweet. The New Year of the Magpie that no one could have imagined. With the song of Yoon Kuk-Young, the magpie became an icon representing the New Year’s Day. It was by “Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms” that the magpie became an icon of informing the appearance of a precious person or guest. In a story titled “Seok Talhae’s Myth” of the book, When the sound of magpies in Ajinpo, east of Gyerim was heard and a person went there, there was a handsome baby boy in a box of a ship, but later on, the baby became King Talhae. Therefore, the magpie became auspicious.

magpie tiger

Also, in “Records of Seasonal Customs of Dongguk,” hearing of the first sound of a magpie in the early morning of New Year’s Day was regarded as a great luck in the year. In the folk customs, it is also a bird that helped Gyeonwoo and Jiknyeo meet each other and also creature that helps new good persons.

Japanese apricot

An apricot flower which blooms in cold winter also represents the New Year’s Day in the lunar calendar. The reason that scholars liked apricot trees is said to be because of the white flowers that bloom, the scent that oozes softly, and the apricot fragrance with a firm spirit even in cold weather. For the reason, Kim Hong-Do, one of Korea’s leading painters, said he loved apricot flowers very much.

New Year

“謹賀新年(Happy New Year)” is a greeting for celebrating the New Year with all due respect that must be inserted in New Year’s cards. There is also a phrase “恭賀新年 (Happy New Year)” but that familiar with is 謹賀新年.

2019, Year of Pig. There will be things you wish for and plan for the New Year. Everyone goes through one year and greet new year every year but every year is truly different. I hope you will not be disappointed even though all of your wishes do not come true. All those things will be piled up one by one and then your wishes will come true at an unexpected moment. Always be healthy and sincere. Imagining the moment when disappointment turns into what you wished for, cheer up in 2019!