Lunar New Year: Approaching Like a Lumbering Big Blue Dragon!

This year is the Year of the Dragon, in the Lunar New Year cycle. And it starts today!

 “새해 복 많이 받으세요!”  Saehae Bok Mani Badeuseyo! May you receive good luck in the New Year!

2024 is the year of the Wood Dragon, or the Blue Dragon. And here in Korea we have been getting ready.

Pop-up gift shops appeared, with flowers, gift boxes of cookies and sweets, and lots of stuffed animals for shoppers needing presents to give to extended family.

The Korean holiday is called Seollal, and it’s a family-get-together time, a time to honor the ancestors, and 3 days off work and school.

People travel to wherever “home” is to see relatives, eat nice food, and do family things together. A central activity is honoring living elders in the family, and also setting out a table of food and decorative offerings to one’s familial ancestors. People wish each other good fortune for the coming year.

I asked my Korean language tutor, Yeoul, what her New Year’s plans are, and she said, “See family, see movies, eat too much!”

And I went to a Blue Dragon special exhibit at the Korean National Folk Museum so I could share as much interesting information about Blue Dragons here as possible.

Many people were out wearing Hanbok around the Folk Museum, which is next to one of the large palaces.

Thar Be Dragons!

Most people already acknowledge that a Dragon can be a fierce lizard-y creature, or just a cute soft toy.

All manner of Dragons are deeply embedded in Korean culture because Dragons, though mystical, are associated with powerfully controlling weather and water. And managing water is always important; there are longstanding Korean rituals for appealing to the powerful Dragons for amenable weather, with music, masks, and dances.

Dragons also ascend in flight, so they are associated with rollercoasters, which are referred to as Blue Dragon Trains.

The museum exhibit included a rollercoaster ride, in the form of a stationary coaster car in front of a screen with a looping video.

You will have to use your imagination a bit to replicate the dazzling swoops and dives!

Hope that wasn’t too scary.

One can see how Dragons populate the Asian imagination, with many natural occurrences that resemble aspects of Dragons. Some surmise that the natural phenomena of lightning or waterspouts in the ocean gave rise to the concept of a flying monster. Here is a still from a waterspout video, and the suggested Dragon.

The landscape itself here also can be suggestive of Dragons. You can see how these locations could prompt people to think about Dragons.

Colorful Dragons appear on architectural decorations for their protective powers. You might consider adding any or all of these to your home:

The New Year holiday is also a time of reflecting on, and trying to divine, one’s possible futures.

I was really hoping that Seollal would be a Fireworks holiday, but apparently it is a Tradition Games Played By Entire Families In The Park holiday.

You are a Dragon if you were born in any of these years: 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976. 1988, 2000, 2012, 2024 (although the specific dates align with that year’s lunar calendar). Each of those is a Dragon year, and they cycle through the associated elements of gold, earth, fire, water, and wood. And the elements correspond to colors. Hence: the Blue or Wood Dragon of 2024.

I know I have quite a few readers who are Wood Dragons — you were born between February 13, 1964 and February 1, 1965. Yay, it’s your Lunar Year! Many of you were my classmates at Bryn Mawr College.

The Lunar year which is winding down is the Year of the Water Rabbit, for those born between January 25, 1963 and February 12, 1964. As a Water Rabbit, I have been having a pretty good year.

(Because I deferred my admission to go traveling for a year after high school, I ended up with all of you: a slightly older Adaptable, Persistent, Fortunate Water Rabbit among the Dignified, Grounded, Always Very Charming Wood Dragons.)

I think you Wood Dragons, and all the Dragons, will be having a most wonderful year. But you Dragons can do things to ensure this! I am helpfully including the recommendations for this which I have gathered from the internet.

And here is your handy Year of the Wood Dragon Shopping Guide! Everything you need to ensure luck and prosperity in the coming year.

From everything I have read so far, the Wood Dragon Lunar Year apparently portends prosperity and energy for everyone, with opportunities for growth, success, and social impact. May that all be roaringly true! Just don’t forget to wear your red socks.