Siho’s First Birthday 돌잔치 100th-day celebration

This past fall (yes I am a little late with my posts^^) I was invited to attend a Korean 100th day celebration 돌 잔치 for my lovely friend Eura’s super cute son Siho!

You may remember Eura from my Lolita meetup post a few months ago! She is the sweetest, and naturally an adorable mommy as well ^^

This was my very first time attending a Korean 1st birthday party, and Nara’s as well~ a new experience for the both of us! I snapped a few photos myself, but Eura was so very kind and allowed me to share some of the professional photos from her special event as well!  Hope you will enjoy seeing them!

 I will try to share with you a bit of what I learned~  but expect a much more thorough post about this in the future ^^

Ttypical 100 day celebration display of fruit, rice cake, etc

Korea has a few important birthday customs~ but the two main ones celebrated very often with large parties are the 100th day celebration 백일/ 돌 잔치 (aka 1st birthday celebration) and the 60th birthday 환갑

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The 100 day birthday celebration 돌잔치 came about in Korea because in the past before modern comforts and medicine infant mortality rate was high, if the baby survived 100 days it was a cause for celebration because he/she had overcome a very fragile period.

Typically 돌잔치 ceremonies are held at big restaurants like buffets or banquets where there are lots of space, and can host a lot of guests. But nowadays there are event rooms (Like Siho’s party) or  halls dedicated to just hosting private events (similar to wedding halls) complete with package deals.

Some of them get very fancy and large, others are simple and held at home, and some are very traditional.  It all depends on the people involved and budget.

Pretty entryway to Siho’s event room~

Of course what celebration would be complete without lots of adorable hanbok photos to display!  Babies in hanbok are always so adorable

Siho’s 100 day event was a bit more modern in style vs others I have seen in the past, often they are a lot more traditional-looking with piles of colorful rice cakes on wooden tables with a folding screen in the background! Nowadays some parents have this style as well! For his party they used very pretty vases with silver balls, flowers, candles, and other lovely decorations that gave a similar feeling as the arrangement of the original tables.

Setting out rice cakes and fruit is customary at this celebration (often the rice cakes are piled positioned where the vases are)  so they had a few peeking out on the table for photos

For those interested in the venue~ it was at the lovey PLAZA hotel overlooking the City Hall (시청광장) field!  Does this field look familiar?  If so, that is because it is the same location that we camped out to watch the Korea VS Japan Olympic soccer game over the summer!

Also check out the cute cake for the event with a little boy in his hanbok!  Finished off with a hanbok style bow at the bottom

Generally at these events what happens is you have a gathering of friends and family who all come with a gift of money (slightly less that at weddings,  usually around 50000 won), sometimes photo slide shows are shown, people eat, they cut a cake and sing happy birthday, photos are snapped, and everyone goes home. It seems to often be a bit routine like weddings here and mainly for the family and adults.

The main draw to this event is the Doljabee 돌 잡이 ceremony!  잡이 meaning “grabbing/grasp”

Doljabee items are laid out on the table in from of the baby and whichever he or she picks up will be in their future.  While Korea has a few traditional items, they do change around depending on the family~ some of the more typical traditional ones are thread, money, calligraphy pens, bow and arrow, good luck pouch, bowl of rice, among others.  The meanings of these can vary a little bit depending on the parents, but it is really easy to understand… money for wealth, string for long life, bow for being a brave powerful general, pen for being a scholar etc.  Rice or cakes being used can mean the baby will never go hungry~  they tend to put only objects that represent positive fortune.

more recently you can find other things placed in like a Microphone, sports ball, golf clubs, computer mouse, stethoscope, etc. Ask any Korean and see what they picked out as a baby, it is often very amusing!

Nara picked out a pencil and became an artist while his brother picked out money and is a businessman now haha. So it kind of turned out as their fortune foretold ^^

Siho’s  items to select for his 돌 잡이 were

Bowl of rice- to stay well fed in life
Pencils- to be a good student
Gavel- to work in law
Thread- for long life
Stethoscope- to be a doctor

In the entryway they had an arrangement of glasses set out for guests to play a game~  ^^  each card has a number and what item Siho would pick from the table at the 돌잡이 ceremony. The winning number out of the ballot that guessed correctly would win a prize!!  This is apparently a very common game to play at    돌잔치 100 day birthday nowadays.

Around this time Siho was very sleepy and ready for his nap so he was not very interested in playing at first and instead grabbed his hat off lol.  Finally after a bit of fussing he grabbed the pencil~ yay!  Hopefully his fortune will come true and he will be a good student or do something wonderful with pencils like become a writer or an artist!

Just for fun, they gave him the long life string too hehe he would rather have a nap though!

After the ceremony it was time for a family cake cutting.  They do something similar with weddings here in Korea and I have seen it shown in other modern 100 day birthday celebrations as well~ Unlike weddings here in Korea, people were actually served the cake that was cut at 돌잔치.  Generally 돌잔치s are held smaller scale than a wedding so the cake can be served to the guests.

Time for some final family group photos!

Just like with weddings in Korea, at 100-day celebrations held in event rooms like this you can usually expect a meal either buffet style or sit down~ buffets being way more common because a lot of guests come with children.  They had a lot to choose from at Siho’s party~PLAZA hotel in Seoul had really yummy catering.

Nara naturally was very excited to eat haha

My plate!!  Yum Yum♥

Following dinner, they had some beautiful treats set out!

I can not refuse pretty cakes and tarts *__*

 When it was finally time to leave they had gifts for the guests set out very pretty in the hall!  Can you guess what this gift was?

Salt! Proceeds went to a charity for UNICEF as well, what a kind gift!  It was really nice sea salt too, so I have a huge supply for cooking now… it will last me a while! Apparently this is a common gift to give guests because salt used to be very valuable in Korea back in the day.

they also had one more gift set out for us!  Pink box for me and blue box for Nara hehe

Look at the wing handles on this packaging~ could it get any cuter??? I wonder what is inside…

Adorable rice cake duk!!  Traditionally it was believed in Korea that if you shared rice cakes with 100 people at a 100 day celebration the baby would live a long life.  People given plates with the rice cake (like neighbors) would return the empty plates later with string to signify long life, or even rice and money which wished the baby wealth and fortune^^  Nowadays they just give them out as traditional gifts though and perhaps for a bit of good luck!

 Nara and I want to thank Eura and her family for inviting us to share in this special day, it was a really fun 돌잔치 experience!  We Hope little Siho has a long and happy life with many more birthday cakes to come ♥

Have you ever attended a Korean 100 day first birthday before?  What was it like?  What interesting things did you see or learn?  What item did the baby pick?? If you are Korean or married to a Korean, what did you our your spouse pick?  Did it come true? Comment below!!