How to Use the Korean Holiday Dates Calculator
Seollal (Korean Lunar New Year) and Chuseok are Korea's two biggest traditional holidays, and both are set by the lunar calendar. Seollal always falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month — the same date celebrated across East Asia as "Lunar New Year." Chuseok always falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, roughly the autumn full moon, and is often nicknamed "Korean Thanksgiving" since it centers on giving thanks for the year's harvest with family, much like the American holiday. Because those lunar dates don't line up neatly with the Gregorian calendar, the matching Gregorian date shifts by weeks each year, so it's genuinely hard to know offhand when either holiday falls. Pick a year above and this tool calculates the Gregorian dates for both that year and the next.
On Seollal, families gather to bow to elders (sebae), eat tteokguk (rice cake soup) — traditionally seen as "gaining a year of age" — and exchange New Year wishes. On Chuseok, families hold an ancestral memorial with the season's first harvest and share songpyeon, a half-moon-shaped rice cake. Both holidays are Korea's biggest travel periods, similar to Thanksgiving week in the US, so flights, trains, and highways get heavily booked well in advance.
The "Closest holiday from today" result always reflects today's real date, independent of whichever year you've selected above — it scans every date in the table and surfaces the nearest upcoming Seollal or Chuseok as a simple countdown.
Frequently Asked Questions
Seollal is always the 1st day of the 1st lunar month and Chuseok is always the 15th day of the 8th lunar month — those lunar dates never change, but because the lunar and Gregorian calendars drift apart, the matching Gregorian date shifts every year.
Pick a year and this calculator shows the Gregorian dates for that year and the next, plus a countdown to whichever of the four dates is closest to today.