Korean Lunar New Year soup, or tteokguk, is intertwined with cultural age traditions where individuals turn one year older upon consuming it on the New Year. Traditionally viewed as a symbolic dish for celebrating birthdays, tteokguk features a hearty broth enriched with beef, along with rice cake medallions that signify prosperity. This soup, cherished for its warmth and depth of meaning, epitomizes the cultural value placed on seniority and serves as a staple for welcoming health and fortune in the new year.
Koreans have long used a system that unifies age: Everyone turns one year older after eating a bowl of tteokguk on the first day of Lunar New Year.
This simplifies things in a culture that deeply values seniority -- the difference of one year can entirely change how you interact with someone.
Tteokguk, consisting of aromatic broth and thin rice cake medallions, is both a symbolic birthday dish and a warm, meaningful soup.
Even if the original meaning of tteokguk evolves, it remains a definitive food of Seollol, essential for welcoming a healthy new year.
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