The three-day Lunar New Year holiday may be the golden opportunity for some of the younger generation to go skiing or to travel abroad but many still turn to traditional ways to celebrate the new year as it has been throughout Korean history.
Traditional cultural sites such as the five main royal palaces in the capital including Deoksu, Changgyeong and Gyeongbok Palaces will showcase a plethora of traditional performances and spectacles.
Gyeongbok Palace which means "Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven" is located in downtown Seoul and will be equipped with a wide range of Korean folk games such as arrow throwing, top spinning and yutnori a traditional board game.
Vistors wearing the Hanbok or traditional Korean dress will be able to enter the palaces for free as well as several royal quarters which are normally closed for restoration but will be opened to visitors during the holidays.
Foreign visitors will get first hand experience of what it is like to celebrate the new year in Korea at Namsangol Hanok Village at the foot of Mount Namsan in central Seoul.
Divided into seven categories the festivities will include performance, wish-making, food and exhibition.
The Lunar New Year holiday will also bring a feast of sport providing an excuse to showcase exciting athletics spectacles especially in the field of Korean traditional wrestling called "ssirum".
At the Jangchung Gymnasium a two-day professional ssirum tournament will take place with heavy-weight wrestlers each about 100 kilograms trying to use the force in their hands, legs and back to turn an opponent over on his back.
Not only are cultural sites in high gear but also theme parks in and around Seoul will hold plenty of diverse performances and parades while offering admission discounts to visitors born during the year of the ox.
And for those who are travel weary and suffering from holiday backlash spas and hot-spring inns across the capital will offer discount packages and free cinema or concert tickets.
Yoo Jihae, Arirang News.
JAN 23, 2009
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Friday, SEP 03, 2010, (KST) 
