The scissors mean they will be good at using their hands. I think a lot of parents these days hope their baby will pick the money!
Sometimes the prediction comes true; sometimes it doesn't. Either way, the celebration is great fun! What do you think you would have picked?
Speaking of birthdays, I'd like to also teach you about a related tradition. Korea still uses a traditional way to count one's age that is different from counting age in the United States. However, Koreans tend to mix the two age systems for different purposes. People often ask you, "What is your Korean age?" or "What is your Western/American age?"
Korean age works like this: on the day you are born, you are already one year old. And then, on New Year's Day (January 1st) you gain a year. So, in this system, everyone's birthday is January 1st! This also means that everyone born in the same year, no matter what day, is the same age. So people often ask "what year were you born?" when they meet you. If you were born in the same year, you can instantly call each other "friends" (chingu)!
I know what you're thinking... then how does the doljanchi work, if you are one year old when you are born? Well, the doljanchi follows the "American" age system, so it is a year from the day you were born.
I'll give an example. I was born on December 14, 1991. So on that day, I was already one year old. Then, a couple of weeks later, on January 1, 1992, I turned two years old! So, if you count up, my Korean age now is 32 even though my "American" age is 30.
What year were you born? What's your "American" age? What's your Korean age?
