One more New Year's Day? What is this other New Year about? Many foreigners may wonder why and how Koreans repeat the New Year holiday that was celebrated only a little over a month ago.

This peculiar custom of observing the lunar New Year in addition to the worldwide solar New Year calls for some explanation to those not familiar with the custom, which is more or less common to some East Asian nations but most pronounced in Korea and China.

The special history of modern Korea, which has been subject to the dual influence of Western and Oriental civilizations, gave rise to the 'split personality' of Korean ways and culture. The Western, that is Gregorian, calendar was adopted from the early 20th century for official and business purposes; yet, the traditional lunar calendar has been in popular use for private and folkloric purposes.

Hence Koreans observe the two occasions with all their double burdens and festivities. (The definition of 'lunar' is open to argument as some astronomers and almanac compilers point out that the Oriental lunar calendar was based on a combination of the solar and lunar cycles.)Recalling and reviving some of the old customs associated with the lunar New Year makes a sentimental journey in these sterile, modern times. Many of them have died out and they have been transformed into latter-day recreational and pleasure exercises in meaning and style.

Meanwhile, some of the good old things persist and take on new forms. The following descriptions may help interested visitors and observers to remember and rethink about the changed aspects of New Year celebrations in Korea.

Like Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Day), the lunar New Year's Day is a time for homecoming and family reunions, while also featuring ancestor worship rituals. During the New Year holiday, all highways across the country are clogged with traffic as people visit their hometowns and old folk. The advent of mass motorization has added to the zeal of the people to hit the road and travel at this time of year for both homecoming and tourism.

On New Year's Day, Koreans enshrine their ancestral tablet and hold a memorial service called charye with food and wine offered in homage before the tablet. The rituals on Chuseok and New Year's Day supplement annual memorial services, which used to be held for ancestors up to four generations back.

In recent years, the generations honored have diminished and an increasing number of Christians have done away with ancestral services, which are rooted in Confucianism.

On the first day of the first moon of the lunar calendar the family gathers at the keunjib, the oldest male member's home, and makes formal New Year's obeisance called sebae after the rites-with deep bows to the elders of the family in the order of grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts. The family then eats the food that was offered to the ancestors during the charye rites.

The younger members then go around the village or neighborhood visiting and making deep bows to relatives and village elders. Upon receiving greetings from the younger ones, the elders usually give sebaedon, a kind of monetary allowance that is offered with a word of compliment and encouragement.

The standard fare for the occasion is tteokguk, a rice dumpling soup. It can be served together with the food offerings prepared for the charye rites. Kite-flying, playing a traditional game called yutnori and a jumping see-saw-like game called neolttwigi are favorite New Year pastimes.

The probability is that not many will be seen engaged in such activities these days as a result of modernization, urbanization, public housing and vast changes in life style. More people may prefer to play cards or video games or go to noraebang (song parlors) or discotheques.

A family is preparing charye rite on the first day of lunar New Year.

Traditionally, people dressed in new clothes specially made or purchased for the day as a symbol of a new beginning. The clothes were cherished and appreciated in the olden days, but the abundance of clothes today has rendered people oblivious to the New Year best.

To be played by two persons or by teams pitted against each other, yut uses four wooden sticks with one flat side, markers and an convex, which is a game board that may be drawn on paper or on the ground.

The object of the game is to move one's four markers called mal (horse) completely around a circular or square diagram of twenty dots before the opponent is able to do the same.

An interior crossing path of nine dots that intersects the diagram provides a short cut toward the final dot, from which markers can exit the diagram.

A player's move is determined by a toss of the yut sticks. The moves are: mo, a five-dot move, when all four sticks fall convex side up; yut, a four-dot move when all four sticks fall flat side up; geol, a three-dot move, when three of the four sticks fall flat side up; gae, a two-dot move when two of the sticks fall flat side up; and do, a one-dot move when one of the sticks falls flat side up. A toss of mo or yut entitles the player to another toss of the sticks.

A player takes another turn if the player's horse lands on a dot occupied by an opponent's marker, which must then go back to the beginning and start over. If a player's horse lands on a dot occupied by one of his own markers, both horses can move together on a single toss of the sticks.

People also enjoyed ssireum (Korean wrestling) and tugs-of-war between rival villages during the New Year season, which usually lasted through daeboreum or the fifteenth day of the first moon. Along with neolttwigi, these games have largely gone out of existence nowadays.

The see-saw is made by placing a rolled-up straw mat under a long board. Two girls play at a time by jumping at either end of the board. As one girl returns to the board, the other is propelled into the air. Neolttwigi is said to have been very popular in the olden days because of the opportunity it provided women, who were not allowed outside the premises of their homes, to see over the walls of their houses.

The New Year holiday, be it solar or lunar, is bound to be a time of conspicuous consumption, exchanges of gifts, brisk travel and heavy imbibing. Such customs, however, enable us to seek for earnest soul-searching, practical rest and recuperation.

Contributed by Twingem Kim