Korean Cultural Centre India celebrates Seollal with Indian secondary school students

- The highlight of this year’s Seollal celebrations was the enactment by Indian artists of a Korean folktale - Heungbu and Nolbu

- Activities planned for the day included playing traditional games, wearing the Hanbok and eating Tteokguk, a rice cake soup

- The cultural event was planned to provide the experience of Korean New Year culture to Indian school students

On 29th January 2025, the Korean Cultural Centre India celebrated Seollal, the Lunar New Year, by organising a cultural event at its centre in New Delhi. The event was attended by over 80 students from a prominent school in New Delhi. Seollal or the Lunar New Year is one of the most important traditional festivals in South Korea. This special holiday marks the first day of the Korean Lunar Calendar, celebrated with hopes and greetings for the year ahead.

The cultural event organized at the Korean Cultural Centre India was designed to provide Indian school students with an experience of Korean New Year culture. The activities planned for the day included playing traditional games, wearing the Hanbok, the traditional clothing of the Korean people, and eating Tteokguk, a rice cake soup. 개선: Tteokguk is a special festive dish prepared for Seollal. It is believed that eating a bowl of Tteokguk on the first day of the Lunar New Year makes a person ‘grow a year older’

 Amid all the cultural extravaganza, the highlight of this year’s Seollal celebrations at the Korean Cultural Centre India was a performance by Indian artists of the Korean folktale Heungbu and Nolbu. The folktale narrates the story of two brothers with contrasting personalities: Heungbu, the kind and humble younger brother, and Nolbu, the greedy and cruel elder brother. One day, Heungbu rescues and cares for an injured swallow, which later rewards him by bringing magical seeds that grow into plants bearing great wealth. Envious of his brother’s fortune, Nolbu deliberately harms a swallow to mimic Heungbu’s actions, but the seeds he receives bring disaster instead. In the end, Nolbu learns the consequences of his greed, and the tale highlights the values of kindness, compassion, and the rewards of virtuous behaviour.

It is a very old Korean folktale with no exact record of when or by whom it was written. But it is believed to have been passed on from one generation to another over several hundreds of years in Korea. It is now told as a popular bedtime story for Korean children.