Culture, tradition, family gathering, all these terms are useful in describing one of the most important, if not the most important, celebrations for the Korean community, New Years. Many Koreans have assimilated into the American community, yet retain traditions of their past. A perfect example is Jason, a Korean-American student who is well assimilated into American culture, but does not lose sight of the culture he was brought up with. Many Koreans in America celebrate two New Years, both with equal gusto. American tradition has it to celebrate New Years on January 01, while Koreans use the Lunar calendar and celebrate their New Year sometime near the end of January and the beginning of February. The official Korean term for this celebration is Seollal. This day is important for Koreans in America, because it gives them an opportunity to meet as a community and celebrate traditions and customs they are not usually able to exercise commonly in American society. However, more and more children have a growing generation gap and do not realize the importance of retaining one’s culture, and instead attend for the lavish presents, rather than the cultural importance of the event.

The most unifying experience for the whole Korean community is likely the games. Games can be played by all ages and bring people together for commentating, competition and fun. The traditional Korean New Years game is Yut. Yut was said to originate in the first century and was not originally meant to be a game but meant to be about different aspects of farming. Do, gye, geol, yut and mo, these are the Korean terms involved in the game and they mean, respectively, pig, dog, sheep, cow and horse. The rules of the game as explained to me are complicated to an outsider but second hand to any Korean. The game involves the four sticks that are tossed into the air and depending on the position of the sticks and the number of stick in a certain position it allows players (Mal) to advance spaces, or displace another Mal’s spaces. The importance of this game to the Korean society seems to lie in the interior circle of the game. It is called yut-pan and there are 29 circles contained in it. To Koreans, “The logic of the sky and earth is beneath this small yut-pan.” The round shape of the border represents the sky. The angled part inside, represents the earth. That means that the sky covers until the whole surface. The comet is at the center of the stars and 28 stars are surrounding it.

Acculturation may not be synonymous with Korean New Years, such as ritual, but because of the effects of living in a totally different sort of society the results are very evident. Acculturation means, “The exchange of cultural features that results when groups come into continuous firsthand contact; the original cultural patterns of either or both groups may be altered, but the groups remain distinct” (Kottak 268). This definition applies in full effect to Jason, as he is a second generation Korean. This means that he was born here and he can see the cultural, social and religious differences for first generation Koreans, such as his parents, and second generation Koreans. Examples of this during New Years would be things such as while it is customary to dress up many students, and more increasingly many parents choose not to wear the special clothes and choose instead to come in suits. Another part of it is the religious aspect. Earlier I mentioned that religion did not play a big part in Korean New Years, but that is only because it was seen through the eyes of someone not used to practicing it during New Years. Generally, in Korea, there is a small amount of time set in for religion and prayer as there is much more uniformity within the culture. In totality, Koreans still keep their group intact but as stated in the definition, the original cultural patterns of the group are altered yet they are able to remai

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