I posted earlier about purchasing my daughter’s Hanbok (traditional Korean dress) from Little Seouls for her Dol (1st Birthday). I wanted to share a photo of her in it. Many thanks to Esther at Little Seouls for expediting the delivery to me on such short notice.
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In the past, the death rate for children was extremely high for babies in Korea. Many died before their first birthday. After the age of one year, the survival rate steeply increased, making this milestone a very happy one for the child’s parents. It has also been a custom to celebrate a child’s 100 day birthday (baek-il) , but in most areas this birthday is less important than the Dol and any celebrations are smaller in scale.
“Dol” has two meanings in Korean. The most common meaning is a child’s first birthday. It can also be used as a generic description for birthdays: Chut-dol (first birthday), Du-dol (second birthday), Seo-dol (third birthday), etc.
Doljabee is a Korean 1st birthday tradition where the baby goes around the table and picks up items that attract her. The baby’s future is predicted according to the what she grabs. The first and second items the baby grabs are considered the most important. Usually Korean parents place the items that they want the child to choose near to the edge of the table. The baby’s future is predicted according to the items:
thread: the baby will have a long life
jujube: the baby will have many descendants
book, pencil, or related items: the baby will become a successful scholar
money, rice, or rice cake: the baby will have great wealth
My daughter selected the spool of thread, ensuring her a long life.
show hide 9 comments
Sally Brewer - Lovely!
pika - FYI, there is a special way to tie the front of the jacket so that there is just one loop, with the strings hanging down.
Ingrid - Trust me, we tried… to no avail with a wiggly almost one year old. =) So we just went with the standard Western bow.
Anthony - Hi Ingrid, this photo is beautiful! My sister has asked me to be the photographer for her son’s Dol and I was wondering if you could share with me your lighting set up for this. I’m not sure I could get a picture as nice as this, but I’d love to attempt it. Any help would be appreciated!
Ingrid - Hi Anthony – I used off-camera flash at 1/8 power through a shoot-through 60″ umbrella camera left with window light camera right as my fill.
Erin - I was wondering what size you chose, and how big your daughter was in the photo? I’m trying to purchase a hanbok from Little Seouls for my son, and would like some idea of how they fit.
Thanks!
Mika - I have the same question as Erin. I’m also trying to purchase a hanbok from Little Seouls for my daughter. What size did you order, and how big was your daughter on her birthday?
Ingrid - Traditionally people buy a 2T so their children can wear them for more than one year, but I found that size to be too big for my 1 year old daughter. She was swimming in a 2T Hanbok. The one I purchased from Little Seoul was 12-18 months and it was perfect with just enough extra wiggle room. She wore typical 12 month size outfits at the time.
MEI TAI - What a lovely girl in a lovely outfit. Great photo, so sweet.