National museums across South Korea are marking the Lunar New Year holiday with cultural programs designed for families nationwide.
The National Museum of Korea said Sunday the events were planned to celebrate Seollal, the country’s traditional New Year, and to offer visitors more hands-on opportunities to experience traditional culture.
At the National Museum of Korea, the spring plum blossom exhibit "Ipchun Maehyang" is being held during the holiday period. The exhibit began Feb. 3 and runs through Feb. 18, featuring plum blossoms in full bloom.
From mid-March, the museum will continue the seasonal theme with a spring flower festival, "Geoulmot Plum Blossom Fragrance," timed to the blooming of plum trees around the Mirror Pond on the museum grounds. The museum is also running a Seollal-themed, visitor-participation SNS event tied to the plum exhibit: visitors who post a verification photo after viewing and register it with the event post will be entered in a drawing for small souvenirs. During the Lunar New Year holiday, visitors can also see the "Our Yi Sun-sin" exhibition free of charge. The museum will be closed on Seollal itself.
The National Museum of Korea is also displaying the full 22-panel set of "Daedongyeojido" by cartographer Kim Jeong-ho (1804?~1866?) starting Feb. 12 on the first floor of the permanent exhibition hall along "The Road of History." The display offers a rare chance to view the complete "Daedongyeojido," produced by Kim in 1861 (Cheoljong 12), at a glance.
The National Folk Museum of Korea will hold its 2026 Seollal festival, "Bok-it-Seol," on the 16th. In the main building lobby, visitors can use a yut-stick fortune-telling kiosk for a New Year’s fortune experience titled "Byeongo Year Seen Through Yut." The museum will also run a "Well-Wishes Archive" where families and neighbors can leave New Year messages.
Other offerings include a special Seollal performance, the family pansori-style theater piece "Finding the Sound of Princess Bari"; a "Sodam Play Yard" featuring traditional games such as jegi, ttakji and spinning tops; and videos exploring the meaning of Seollal.
At the museum’s Paju branch, the Seollal seasonal program "Seolma-jung — A Soft-and-Lively Seasonal Playground" will be offered. In a storage-linked activity based on the tradition of exchanging well-wishes on Seollal, "New Year’s Greetings Completed With Horse-Related Words," visitors will find horse-related artifacts and use their meanings to complete a New Year greeting. Those who finish the activity sheet will receive a Seollal souvenir inspired by tteokguk.
Regional national museums are also hosting Seollal events reflecting local themes. The Gwangju National Museum will offer a multi-stamp bookmark-making activity at its ceramics culture center and a workshop to make a horse-insignia plaster air freshener.
At the Buyeo National Museum, visitors can try folk games including yutnori, tuho and jegichagi. The Daegu National Museum will host hands-on sessions where visitors can make items such as a card-holder-style horse insignia and a gat key ring.
Other national museums around the country have prepared additional programs, including traditional games such as jegichagi, rolling hoops and spinning tops, Seollal lucky pouches, and gonggi. Visitors can join on site without reservations, and participation is free.
Yoo Hong-jun, director of the National Museum of Korea, said the museum "carefully prepared" a range of events so people can spend the holiday enjoying traditional culture with their families. He added that the museum will continue developing programs so it can serve not only as a place to view artifacts but also as a cultural hub connecting generations and local communities.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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