9 Korean New Year (설날) phrases, from the greeting to the bow
Seollal, the Lunar New Year, is the biggest holiday in Korea: three days off, the roads out of Seoul packed with people driving to their parents' homes, and a set of phrases that everyone says at least once. Most of them are about wishing the other person well rather than celebrating yourself.
The nine below cover the greeting, the office, the morning bow to grandparents and the breakfast table. Almost all of it is polite or formal speech, because the holiday is built around elders, and one or two are the jokes younger people make among themselves.
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새해 복 많이 받으세요.
saehae bok mani badeuseyo.
Happy New Year.
Literally: Receive a lot of New Year luck.
The greeting for both 1 January and 설날 (Lunar New Year), to elders, friends, shopkeepers and group chats alike. You wish luck on the other person rather than celebrating. Casual: 새해 복 많이 받아.
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설 잘 보내세요.
seol jal bonaeseyo.
Have a good Seollal.
What coworkers say on the last day before the holiday. 연휴 잘 보내세요 (have a good long weekend) covers any holiday, and 고향 잘 다녀오세요 (safe trip home) fits the many people heading to their family's town.
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올해도 잘 부탁드립니다.
olhaedo jal butakdeurimnida.
I look forward to working with you again this year.
Literally: This year too, I humbly ask (your favour).
Formal, for bosses, colleagues and clients, usually right after the New Year greeting. The 도 (too, also) is what makes it a continuation rather than a first meeting.
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세배 드릴게요.
sebae deurilgeyo.
Let me give you my New Year's bow.
세배 is the deep bow children and younger relatives make to grandparents and parents on the morning of 설날. 드리다 is the humble form of 'give'. Say it, then kneel and bow; the elder responds with a wish for the year.
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건강하세요.
geonganghaseyo.
Stay healthy.
What you say to grandparents and parents as you rise from the bow, often as 올해도 건강하세요 (be healthy this year too). To elders it carries more warmth than any other wish, which is why it is the one everyone remembers to say.
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세뱃돈 주세요.
sebaetdon juseyo.
New Year's money, please.
세뱃돈 is the cash elders give in an envelope after the bow. Children say this line earnestly; adults say it to their parents as a joke, and some parents play along. The custom runs until you have a job, roughly.
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떡국 먹었어요?
tteokguk meogeosseoyo?
Did you have your tteokguk?
Rice-cake soup is the 설날 breakfast, and eating it is said to make you a year older under the old age system. Hence the standing joke, 떡국 안 먹으면 나이 안 먹어요 (skip the soup and you don't age).
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한 살 더 먹었네요.
han sal deo meogeonneyo.
Another year older.
Literally: (I) ate one more year of age.
Korean 'eats' age: 나이를 먹다. Said with a sigh over the empty soup bowl. Since 2023 official ages follow the international system, but the New Year joke has outlived the law.
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올해 소원이 뭐예요?
olhae sowoni mwoyeyo?
What's your wish for this year?
The small-talk question of the holiday, asked around the table and under the first sunrise. 소원 is a wish you hope for; 목표 (goal) is the one you plan to work at. Common answers: 건강 (health), 취업 (getting a job), 여행 (travel).
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If you learn only one, make it 새해 복 많이 받으세요, which works in every direction and on both New Years. If you are invited to a Korean family's 설날, 건강하세요 to the grandparents after the bow will earn you more goodwill than anything else you say all year.