It is thought that the Korean New Year celebration emerged from China in the 3rd century. Samguk yusa, a document created in the thirteenth century, contains Korea’s own account of the new year’s celebration. In 488 AD, the new year was observed while Silla was ruled by its twenty-first king. According to the Korean historical work, Korean New Year was one of the nine major Korean festivals that included ancestral rites.
Even though Seollal is a traditional Korean festival that dates back many centuries, it didn’t become an officially recognised holiday in South Korea until 1985.
Under Japanese imperialist rule from 1895 to 1945, Lunar New Year was banned as it was deemed a morally and economically wasteful holiday. It still remained a popular holiday and as South Korea shifted from a military dictatorship towards a more democratic society in the 1980s, mounting pressure from the public to have official holidays and relax the country’s tiring work culture led to the holiday being added to the federal calendar as a three-day period.