Koreans celebrate ‘real’ New Year in Nigeria

However events marking the celebrations in Nigeria held on Tuesday at the Korean Cultural Centre, Abuja where a blend of traditional and contemporary Korean culture was showcased. The event kicked off with a documentary on how the Koreans celebrate the New Year and just how significant it is to them. The idiosyncrasies and peculiar foods […]

However events marking the celebrations in Nigeria held on Tuesday at the Korean Cultural Centre, Abuja where a blend of traditional and contemporary Korean culture was showcased.

The event kicked off with a documentary on how the Koreans celebrate the New Year and just how significant it is to them. The idiosyncrasies and peculiar foods and traditional sports practiced on this day were also highlighted in the short documentary.

Visitors were put through their paces learning the traditional New Year’s Day song— in Korean. The teacher was a Nigerian who had taken courses in the Korean language. The group rendition was fair for a foreign language song they learnt in a matter of minutes.

Then an all Nigerian K-pop dance group stormed the stage and shook the hall with their energetic dance and vibrant music. The sextet, five boys and a girl, had caught the virus of the Korean Pop that has been the rave in most of Asia and have even gone as far as participating in a K-pop tournament in Korea.

Children and young adults were then asked to offer the traditional Korean new Year greetings called the Seabae, which compromised of bowing to elders, with slightly different approaches for men and women. The Director of the Korean Cultural Centre, Mr. Suh Joeng Sun and his wife, dressed in the traditional hanbuk, recieved the greetings and rewarded the young ones with the New Year present of money in an envelope.

The celebrations spilled over to the taekwondo hall were guests participated in Korean folk games. Many people tried their hands at Yutnori, a Korean board game quite similar to ludo and the more athletic Jegichagi, were participants are expected to keep a shuttlecock in the air as long as possible by kicking it.

Speaking earlier, Mr. Suh Jeong Sun said the lunar New Year is the real New Year because the solar New Year on January 1, which the Koreans also celebrate, is western.

He said his country is committed to cultural exchange with Nigeria and will be holding a K-Pop contest in May in the Asian country with participants from Nigeria.