Music thrummed through the Reitz Union Grand Ballroom on Sunday night as students celebrated Seollal, Korea's Lunar New Year, with performances and skits.
The holiday marks the first day of Korea’s traditional lunisolar calendar. Because it follows both the moon’s phases and the sun’s positions, the celebration falls on a different date each year. Student organizers also held their celebration a few days after the official holiday to accommodate students’ schedules.
Organized by the Korean Undergraduate Student Association, the event drew about 150 attendees and featured dances, a ukulele sing-along and a taekwondo demonstration.
For KUSA co-presidents Andrew Kim and Caron Choe, the event created space to navigate the balance between honoring tradition and embracing modern culture.
“There’s a lot of separation between people that want to keep it strictly traditional,” said Choe, a 19-year-old UF political science sophomore. “But then there’s the type of people that want more modern culture.”
Kim, a 20-year-old UF business administration sophomore who grew up in Colorado, said he felt “cut off” from his culture growing up, because there weren’t a lot of Koreans in his hometown.
“Now that I came to university, I was able to find these kinds of spaces,” Kim said. “I really wanted to make sure I had a place in it.”
Between performances, students staged skits exploring generational differences within Korean culture, highlighting tension between elders who favor tradition and younger generations drawn to contemporary influences, such as K-dramas and K-pop.
Shreya Singh, an 18-year-old UF biochemistry freshman, performed with the UF Taekwondo Club. Members wielded nunchucks, broke wooden boards and sparred on beat to “Thank U” by the K-pop group Ateez.
A second-degree black belt, Singh has practiced taekwondo since elementary school. Though she is not Korean, she said the martial art helped her learn about the culture.
The UF Ukulele Club led a crowd sing-along to songs from “K-pop Demon Hunters,” while multiple dance groups — including Floridance, the Assemble Dance Company and Genesis Dance Crew,a K-pop dance group at UF — performed choreographed routines.
Graciela Strand, a 23-year-old UF computer science senior, performed a ballet solo to BTS’s “Lie.” The choreography was dynamic and intense. The dance reflected her struggles with mental health throughout college, she said.
Though not Korean, Strand has performed at KUSA events before, drawn by her appreciation for the culture. Growing up half-Cuban, she said she developed a love for Spanish in high school and feels drawn to cultural exchange.
“It feels like a celebration of language, culture and dance, all the things I love, packed into one show,” she said. “Connecting with other cultures is just an extension of my love for Spanish and a way to celebrate my own heritage.”
Contact Julianna Bendeck at jbendeck@alligator.org.
Julianna Bendeck is a contributing writer for The Alligator.
