Seollal in Korea and Ileya Festival of Yoruba People

The way festival are been celebrated in different parts of the world use to be different from each other, it can be due to cultural difference, religion difference, time and season is also part of it.
But no matter how, the most important thing is people come enjoy, make use of the best days they have together and all things are been fun.

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When I see how Korean people celebrate Seollal, their Lunar New Year, it always remind me of how we Yorubas in Nigeria celebrate our own big festival, the Ileya Festival (also call Eid-el-Kabir). Even though the two holiday come from different culture and religion, they share some similarities and also many differences that show the values of the people.

In Korea, Seollal is time for family gathering, according to what I have read. People travel from city back to their hometown, just like we Yorubas travel to our villages during Ileya. On Seollal morning, Korean family perform ancestral rites, bow to elders, and eat special food like tteokguk (rice cake soup). The young ones also receive gifts or money from elders after greeting them. This show respect to parents and ancestors is very very common important in Korean culture.

Same here among Yorubas when it comes to Ileya Festival is also time for family gathering. Many people buy new clothes, cook delicious food and share with neighbors and visitors. The most special part is the ram sacrifice, which is done to remember the story of Prophet Ibrahim. After the ram is slaughtered, the meat is shared among family, friends and even the poor. This show our value of togetherness, sharing and kindness to others.

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One similarity between Seollal and Ileya is that they are not only about food, they value respect and family unity. In both holiday, elders are respected and children are made happy. Everybody come together to celebrate, laugh, and forget their worries. It use to be very exciting.

During my research I saw that the difference is that Seollal focus more on remembering the ancestors and Korean tradition, while Ileya has deep religious meaning in Islam. Also, in Korea they wear traditional dress like hanbok, while in Yoruba land we wear aso-ebi or nice Ankara clothes or Jalamia or Abaya and all kinds of native dress. Music and drumming also play big role in Ileya, people dance and rejoice everywhere, there are also Ram sport fighting competition between the festival usually taken place on the field while in Korea it is more calm but full of family love.

These holiday show how culture reflect in people’s life. Koreans value respect and family tradition, Yorubas value sharing, joy and unity. Even though they are different, both holiday teach us that happiness come when we are together with people we love. And to me that's the main purpose of festival and not really the food.

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