IKS held their Seollal Celebration on Saturday, February 1st to celebrate the year of the Blue Snake. The event was held on the fourth floor of the Ferguson International Center, from 11am to 1:30pm. Unlike years prior, the event was not a joint venture between IKS and other East Asia related programs, and instead was solely an IKS event, allowing us to focus more fully on the traditions and fun of Korean Lunar New Year while beginning new traditions at IKS.
The event was opened with some short remarks by the IKS director, Dr. Seungkyung Kim about Lunar New Year in South Korea, as well as announcements of upcoming IKS events. Afterwards, participants were given an hour and a half to enjoy the games and activities that were scheduled. Following a rotation card, participants were able to spend an equal and plentiful amount of time to experience the hat decorating activity, play a short game of Yut-nori, and try their luck with our jegichagi competition.
After activities, lunch was served and participants enjoyed a variety of Korean food from local Korean restaurant K-Bap. The lunch menu consisted of kimchi, white rice, Korean fried chicken, dried radish, bean sprouts, dumplings, and kimbap. The event finished with some closing remarks and the announcement of the jegichagi competition winners. There were prizes awarded to the top sixteen spots from the competition, with the prizes ranging from assorted snack bags to speakers or karaoke machines.
IKS would like to thank everyone who came to our event and would like to especially thank all of our volunteers. We could not do events like this without the help of our volunteers, so our deepest thanks to you all. For more information on upcoming IKS events and volunteer opportunities, please subscribe to our email listserv or follow us on social media @iks_iu on X and Instagram.