How Korean-Australian families like Esther's are celebrating Lunar New Year

For Esther and Andrew, passing on family customs to their four children isn't just a fun pastime — it's about belonging.

"As much as I feel I'm Australian, I think the beautiful thing about Australia is that it's a mix of everything, and the mix that we bring is in the Korean side," Esther says.

We caught up with Esther to see how her family is marking Korean Lunar New Year.

What does Lunar New Year mean to you?

For me it's about starting off the new year being solemn and reflective with your family. We go back to either our parents' house or an elder's house, and we pay our respects.

We lay a big mat out, and we go by generations. So my siblings and I will stand very formally, and wish our parents a happy new year, long life and health. Then we'll bow to them.

They in turn give their blessings to us by giving us advice and their own insights into what they think we should do for the year.

Then they give us some pocket money. Although, we're at that age now where we don't get any from my parents (unless they're feeling extra generous), but Andrew and I give it to our kids when they bow to us.

In our culture, it's not necessarily in red envelopes — that's more Chinese. It'll be in regular envelopes, or just cash.

We'll also usually get dressed up formally in our hanbok — we love wearing it and will find any excuse to.

How did you celebrate Lunar New Year growing up?

My family was always connected to the Korean community within Australia, so I was brought up with the language and the food and the customs.

Some of my Korean friends don't take it as seriously, and that's partly because of how they immigrated here — they didn't have parents or elders to go to.

But on new year's day, I have fond memories of going with my siblings to all the old people's houses and doing the rounds, basically. We'd drop by and pay our respects to each family, and that was really special.

What do you eat on Lunar New Year?

We call Korean New Year Seollal, and it's always going to involve tteokguk, which is rice cake soup.

There's a kind of saying that goes with it, which basically goes: 'If you have a bowl of tteokguk, you gain one year, because you've had it on the first day of the year'.

For kids, it's a good way to get them to eat. Like: "C'mon, don't you want to get older?"

And they'll have multiple bowls and go: "Look I'm three, four, five years old!"

Or adults will go: "Oh I don't want tteokguk this year, I don't want to get older."

What activities are part of Lunar New Year?

There are some traditional games that we play, and one's called yunnori.

It's a board game played with four sticks that you chuck up in the air, which land either face up or face down. And depending on the combination of face up or face down, it tells you a number between one and four, and you move up spots.

It's all very hyped up about how you throw it, how it lands – it's got all these combinations of whether you go back or forward a step.

It's basically a game of luck, but it's reserved for special days like the new year.

Are there any traditions your family doesn't do?

In some traditional households in Korea, they'll pay their respects to their ancestors by burning incense.

Generally, they'll set up a table with beautifully made food, as well as photos and the names of their loved ones. They'll burn some incense and will bow, to offer it to their ancestors.

But this tradition (called Charye) is less widespread than it used to be, and it depends on religion.

Among Christian households like my family, we don't really do it, because that's not how we communicate to our ancestors.

How will you mark Lunar New Year this year?

My parents live in Eastwood (in Sydney), so we'll go to their house and help with food prep, and we'll get dressed up in our hanbok.

My sister lives in Germany at the moment, but she'll still video in and get dressed up over there, despite the time zone. She'll participate as much as she can, and will also bow to my parents over the video stream.

Wherever you are in the world, everything stops. It's family time.