New Year and "eating one more year"

I am 36 years old.  And on February 18th, Lunar New Year, I will turn 38 years old.  I think.  I never got it right... it always confuses me despite the simplicity of everyone getting a year older on New Year's Day, instead of silly individual birthdays.  Perhaps because we are also born already a year old and have two birthdays, Lunar and Gregorian.  Perhaps because my mother told me that I had to eat dduk-guk to "eat one more year" and I had skipped... oh so many dduk-guks.  Of course, by that logic, I'm still a strapping young 20 year old: not old enough yet to buy booze to celebrate New Year's Day, but hopefully cute and young enough to get an older man to send over a cocktail or two to my table.

Anyone who's known me for at least few years will know that the New Year (both Lunar and Gregorian) is the only holiday I deem worthy of celebrating.  Yes, part of the attraction was that pickling my lovely brain cells became prerogative for that one night of the year, and I didn't have to come up with an excuse - for someone who went to an ultra-strict Christian boarding school, it was liberating - but it was more than that.  Most of it had to do with nostalgia: remembering how I used to feel on New Year's Eves each year.

When we were younger, New Year's Eve was when my parents loosened up a little and anything went.  Bed times were flexible and nothing was ordinary.  Most of the years, Gregorian New Year's Eve was when we went to our parents' friends' parties.  The kids were allowed to stay up as long as the adults, our fathers got good and stewed, and, without fail, singing will ensue; have you ever seen a drunk Korean party without singing?  I think not. 

This was more magical to me than any other times of the year: my strict parents were having too good of a time to admonish our every goof and the kids usually played in another room, eating and playing whatever we wanted.

Lunar New Year was more about the New Year's Day.  We wore our hanboks, went to my paternal relatives, paid respect (sae-bae) and received money for it, and ate all day.  The kids sat around and played different games, like yut, men sat around talking and drinking, and the women worked in the kitchen - the daughters-in-law would steal glances around before whispering gripes, laughing together, while halmoni would pop her head in once in a while to bark some orders.  Sure, they're now estranged from us, but New Year's Days with them were a fun tradition.  I miss those times.

Now that we are parents, we don't go out to get sloshed.  Since Little Nabi is already on Papa Nabi's schedule, it's not a huge stretch to greet the new year with her so we did the countdown together.  I think I will convince PN to take us out to a Korean restaurant this Saturday.  After all, LN needs to "eat another year" if she's going to be a 2 - no, 3? - year old.  I may even try to teach her to do the sae-bae - she can put a piece of candy in her bok-jumoni!

Happy New Year!  Hope the Golden Pig brings you lots of fortune this year...

Comments

[Angie in Texas]

And a Happy New Year to the Kimchi Mamas who have made my mothering life a little less lonely, a little sad and sometimes very funny!

[Rachel]

Happy New Year to you, Mama Nabi, and to all the other bloggers and readers.

[Linda B]

Happy New Year!
and Happy Birthday, too :)

[honglien123]

Happy New Year Everyone! =)

[kim]

Happy New Year, Mamas and all! Wishing you each a hot bowl of dduk-guk this weekend!

[halfmama]

Thank you for that trip down memory lane! **sigh** I would love to sit down on the floor and play yut and Ha-toh. I'm curious about your 'estranged' comment though. Does every Korean family have estranged relatives at some point or another or is it just mine??

Anyway, Happy Birthday and New Year! Hope your Korean meal is delicious. :)

[carol]

Happy birthday(s)! We didn't do sae-bae very often, being so far away from grandparents and elders and extended family in general, but the few times we did it we made out like bandits. And ate lots of Botan rice candies. Yum.

[beloved]

A big 새해복많이바드세요 to you, too!