Happy Year of the Tiger!

It’s the Lunar New Year holiday over here in Korea, China, Japan, and some other Asian countries. Back home in the US, a lot of people know of it as Chinese New Year. It’s also known as Spring Festival and it celebrated at the second moon following the Winter Solstice. It’s the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Today feels a lot like spring is coming. At least here on the island. It snowed in Seoul.

How is the Lunar New Year celebrated in Korea?

Lunar New Year is called Seollal (설날) in Korean. It’s the first day of the Korean Calendar. It is also one of the most important holidays in Korea. The other being Chuseok or Korean Thanksgiving.

The celebration for Seollal is usually three days. The day before Korean New Year, the day of and the day after. Most Koreans spend time with their families, wear hanboks (Korean traditional clothes), perform ancestral rites called charye, eat traditional food, and play folk games.

It’s a family holiday and there’s a ritual of fillial piety called Sebae (세배) in which people are dressed in Hanboks and wish their elders a happy new year by performing a deep traditional bow saying 새해 복 많이 받으세요, “Please receive a lot of good fortune for the New Year”. Elders reward them by giving them pocket money in beautiful silk bags and offering words of wisdom.

A traditional food to eat is Tteokguk! It’s a sliced rice cake soup. It’s eaten during the new year and is used for Korean age. Once you finish it, you are a year older in Korean age. Another traditional food to eat is Jeon. It’s one of my favorites. It’s a savory pancake that is delicious and ripped apart with chopsticks. You don’t need a knife for it anyways. There’s other food like japchae (a type of noodles), galbi-jjim (braised short ribs), mandu-guk (dumpling soup), and rice cakes.

What kind of tiger year is it?

2022 is a year of the Water Tiger (Black Tiger in Korea). It starts today, February 1st, 2022, and ends on January 21st, 2023. The year of the Water Tiger only happens every 60 years. The year of the Tiger in general is 12 years apart like the other signs.

Years of the Tiger include 2022, 2010, 1998, 1986, 1974, 1962, 1950, 1938.….

What does the Tiger represent?

The Tiger is known as the king of all beasts. It represents braveness and strength. The Water Tiger comes from the five elements of Gold, Wood, Water, Fire and, Earth.  Since 2022 is the Year of the Water Tiger, it indicates a prosperous year due to the Tiger’s auspicious signs (strength, exorcising evils, and braveness).  

Lucky colors for Tigers?

According to chinahighlights.com it’s good to wear red to bring good luck in a birth sign year. I heard that throughout the years constantly. Apparently, lucky colors for Tigers are orange, blue, and Gray. Gray to improve career development, blue to help with the happiness of love, and orange to improve wealth. I’ve seen white as a lucky color too, but don’t know why yet. If I find out, I shall update.

I have noticed orange in a lot of expensive houses back in like 2010 and always wondered why. Now looking back, that was the last year of the Tiger. I wonder if there’s any relation.

What does the year of the Tiger mean?

Apparently, it’s supposed to be about making big changes. All about taking a chance, risks, and going on adventures. Sounds like my kind of year. It helps us find some motivation. I think we can all use that with everything that is going on. With it being the year of the Water Tiger, our emotions are going to come out a bit more too. Not surprising. Even with horoscopes, water signs tend to be more emotional. So, it seems to be a year for us to change and build some things. Get creative even. Seems like we just go for it this year no matter what to see what happens.

I mean I did start this site with those thoughts. Is it a coincidence or just a year of the Tiger influence? Either way, I’ll take it.

Do you know your animal sign? I’m a Snake and it seems that Tigers and Snakes don’t get along well. Hehe. What do you know about your sign? Leave a comment below~