Christmas is just around the corner, so it’s a good time to brush up on some vocabulary, especially Korean words used at Christmas. How do you wish your friends in Korea a merry Christmas? Let’s find out together in this article.
Christmas in Korea
Christmas in Korea (ํฌ๋ฆฌ์ค๋ง์ค, from the English Christmas) is not a traditional holiday, but is somewhat acquired by the West, brought on by both the spread of the evangelical Christian religion and consumerism. More than being considered a religious holiday, it is in fact a day to spend time with a loved one, kind of like a second Valentine’s Day.
There are many things you can do, including shopping (์ผํํ๋ค), ice skating (์์ด์ค ์ค์ผ์ดํ ) and going to the movies (์ํ๊ด์ ๊ฐ๋ค). Although it is not as significant as it is in the West, it is still a national holiday (ํด์ผ) and schools as well as many businesses are closed. However, the festivity is limited to 25th December, and on the 26th, everything is back to normal. Even Christmas Eve (ํฌ๋ฆฌ์ค๋ง์ค ์ด๋ธfrom the English Christmas Eve) is not considered a holiday, but a normal working or school day.
How to Wish Merry Christmas
Wishing Merry Christmas in Korean is super duper easy, as the English expression Merry Christmas is used: ๋ฉ๋ฆฌ ํฌ๋ฆฌ์ค๋ง์ค!
But if you want to take it a step further and wish a happy New Year as well, then you can add ์ํด ๋ณต ๋ง์ด ๋ฐ์ผ์ธ์ (sae hae bok manhi badeuseyo), which literally means “receive much happiness in the New Year”. This is the most formal expression, but if you are more familiar with the person you are wishing a happy New Year to, you can then simply say ์ํด ๋ณต ๋ง์ด ๋ฐ์. The most important New Year’s Eve in Korea is actually the Lunar New Year, called Seollal (์ค๋ ), but that doesn’t mean people don’t also celebrate the Solar New Year (์ํด), watch fireworks (๋ถ๊ฝ), travel (์ฌํํ๋ค) or attend exclusive parties (ํํฐํ๋ค) on New Year’s Eve (์ฐ๋ง).
Typical Christmas dishes
As Christmas is an imported western holiday and not a traditional Korean holiday, there are no special dishes to eat on this day. A variety of daily food is eaten, such as soups (๊ตญ), noodles (๋ฉด) or grilled meat (๊ณ ๊ธฐ), all accompanied by the inevitable banchan (๋ฐ์ฐฌ) โ Korean side dishes โ including kimchi (๊น์น) and rice (๋ฐฅ). The only course that features something special dedicated to this holiday is dessert. It features a cake with Christmas decorations, usually made of sugar paste, and is simply called Christmas Cake (ํฌ๋ฆฌ์ค๋ง์ค ์ผ์ดํฌ).
As for the Korean New Year, there is one dish that can never be missed on Korean tables on that day. It is tteokguk (๋ก๊ตญ), a soup made of rice dumplings sliced into strips, shaped like coins. Eating tteokguk is said to bring good luck and wealth in the new year, and not only that, it makes you a year older โ Korean age is calculated differently, and you gain an extra year not on your birthday, but on January 1 each year.
Other Korean words used at Christmas
Other Korean words used for Christmas include lights (๋ถ), Father Christmas (who becomes a grandfather instead of a father in Korean, ์ฐํย ํ ์๋ฒ์ง), and decorative coloured lanterns (๋ฑ), the snow (๋), the snowman (๋์ฌ๋, literally a “snow person”), the Christmas tree (ํฌ๋ฆฌ์ค๋ง์ค ํธ๋ฆฌ, Christmas Tree as in English) and the presents (์ ๋ฌผ). Finally, if you want to make a toast with your friends, you can choose between two terms for saying “cheers!” or “cheers, cheers!”: ๊ฑด๋ฐฐ (geonbae) or ์ง (jjan).
We hope you enjoyed this article! For more information on Korean language and culture, keep following the Go! Go! Hanguk blog and do not hesitate to contact us about living and studying in Korea.