Your weekend in town
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Foreigners enjoy “yutnori,” a traditional Korean board game with four rods ahead of Seollal or Lunar New Year’s Day, which falls on Jan. 31, at the Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, Tuesday. / Yonhap
Attractions in culture, leisure and sports for Lunar New Year’s holidays
By Baek Byung-yeul
We are nearly a month into 2014, which means that the Lunar New Year’s holidays have arrived.
This is when Koreans continue their long tradition of spewing expletives on congested highways, welcoming annoying relatives to the table, overeating, and binge-drinking with friends who manage to get to their home towns in time.
Of course, you can choose to spend the break from work in a more culturally sophisticated way. Seoul’s Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) palaces and Jongmyo Shrine will be open on Lunar New Year’s Day, which falls on Friday. Visitors who wear the traditional Korean garb of ``hanbok’’ will be allowed to enter these places for free throughout the holidays, from Thursday to Sunday.
Starting this month, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has designated every last Wednesday of every month as a "Culture Day,’’ when discounts are provided at palaces, many performing arts venues as well as movie theaters, and sporting venues.
Korean folk village
The Korean Folk Village, not far from Seoul in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, has prepared a variety of programs for the holidays, with highlights including games, performances and the reenactment of traditional rituals.
Tickets cost 15,000 won for adults, 12,000 won for students up to high school and 10,000 won for children. There is also a 50 percent discount for people born in "horse’’ years according to the Chinese zodiac. These are 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990 and 2002, and also to people who wear hanbok.
For more information, visit
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“The Last Supper” by late artist Kim Ki-chang (1913-2001) is on display at the Seoul Museum in central Seoul through March 16. / Courtesy of Seoul Museum
Performances
The National Museum of Korea will be a performing arts venue during the holidays, hosting a special performance of traditional Korean music (``gugak’’) and opera ("changgeuk’’) on Feb. 1. For more information, visit
The National Folk Museum of Korea will also host a number of traditional dance and percussion performances from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2.
The National Gugak Center located next to the Seoul Arts Center in southern Seoul will offer a free gugak concert today. For more information, visit
The Seoul Arts Center will provide a 40 percent discount on tickets for “Moon Embracing the Sun,” a musical adoption of a hit 2012 television drama, a love story between a king and a court lady set in the Joseon period, during the Lunar New Year’s holidays. For more information, visit
The Blue Square theater near Itaewon, Seoul, will also provide a 30 percent discount on tickets for "Jersey Boys,’’ featuring the original Broadway cast. For more information, visit
Art exhibitions
Many of Seoul’s art galleries and museums will be open during the holidays.
Seoul Museum’s exhibition of the works of late Korean painter Kim Ki-chang was recently extended by two months, continuing through mid-March, thanks to an endless stream of visitors.
The exhibition is highlighted by his “Life of Jesus” series, in which Kim painted several images of Jesus at different moments of his life, but portrayed as a man during the Joseon dynasty. Tickets cost 5,000 won for children, 7,000 won for students and 9,000 won for adults. For more information, call (02) 395-0100 or visit
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), which opened late last year, is holding an exhibition of some 100 definitive works of Korean contemporary art. Admission is 6,000 won. MMCA’s other branch in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, will hold three exhibitions from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2.
The Gwacheon museum is currently hosting a retrospective exhibition featuring the works of late Korean Japanese architecture Jun Itami (1937-2011). For more information, call (02) 2188-6000 or visit
Sports and games
It could be said that the Lunar New Year’s holiday is a quiet time for sports before the Sochi Winter Olympics kicks off, but fans of ``ssireum,’’ or Korean wrestling, will not be disappointed.
The annual "Seollal Ssireum Championship’’ will be held at the Hongju Culture and Sports Center in Hongsung, Gangwon Province from Jan. 28 to Feb. 1, and wrestlers will compete in four different weight classes, such as Taebaek (under 80 kilograms), Geumgang (under 90 kilograms), Halla (under 110 kilograms) and Baekdu (under 150 kilograms).
The Korean national football team will play against Mexico in San Antonio on Thursday (KST) and this will be broadcast live, before the national squad goes up against the United States on Sunday. Both matches are more important than the usual friendly matches because Korea manager Hong Myung-bo will use them to try out players ahead of the World Cup finals in Brazil.
Now Showing
A new Disney animation "Frozen,’’ which is already immensely popular, is an obvious choice for moviegoers planning to take their children to theaters.
Korean filmmakers have a habit of saving their comedies for the holidays and this year is no exception. Among those gaining attention is, "Miss Granny,’’ in which Nah Moon-hee stars as a woman in her 70s who magically turns into a younger version of herself (Sim Eun-kyeong) after having her picture taken at a mysterious photo studio.
"Hot Young Bloods,’’ another comedy, features Lee Jong-suk and Park Bo-young in a bumpy love story. A "Man in Love’’ is another romantic comedy starring Hwang Jung-min as a low-life thug and Han Hye-jin as his love interest.