A little confusing at first, right? Koreans still celebrate their birthday on the actual day with cake and candles just like us but when it is New Year's everyone celebrates with a soup that they finish in order to age. So, you are actually older in Korea than you are in the United States!
South Korea goes by a special age created many years ago in ancient China. Instead of going by a cardinal number system (i.e. 0,1,2,3,4), they go by an ordinal number system (i.e. 1,2,3,4) where zero doesn't exist. Of course, with changing times, most of their numbers are cardinal but the age remains a special tradition in South Korea. It is the only nation in the world that uses this system today. Also, after your New year's celebration/birthday, if you are freshly two, you get a celebration called Dol (pronounced as dul), or literally two in the Korean number system. This special tradition involves wearing traditional Korean hanbok, taking lots of cute pictures, and having a ton of fruit to eat! The celebration is a blessing for a happy, prosperous future. Sadly, it originated because many babies did not survive past one in the very early days of Korea when North Korea and South Korea were ruled by dynasties. However, now it is a celebration of life, growing up, and cute, happy babies snacking on fruit!
South Koreans consider their special birthday age important to their culture because age is important in their culture. In fact, age determines how you speak to someone, how you get food with someone and even your friendship with someone!
