Happy New Year in Korean: 새해 복 많이 받으세요

Happy New Year in Korean is 새해 복 많이 받으세요 (sae-hae bok ma-ni ba-deu-se-yo), literally "receive lots of New Year luck." It's not a wish you make on someone's behalf — it's a command, politely phrased, telling them to go out and receive the luck themselves. The same line works for both January 1 and Lunar New Year (Seollal), Korea's bigger holiday.

English wishes you a happy new year. Korean orders you to go collect your luck. That's not a joke translation — 받으세요 is the polite imperative form of 받다 ("to receive"), so the full phrase is structurally closer to "receive plenty of New Year luck" than to any kind of wish. It's a small grammatical fact that tells you a lot about how directive Korean politeness can sound while staying perfectly warm.

Below: the phrase broken into its four working parts, which new year it's actually for (there are two), what to say while bowing on Seollal, and the text-message etiquette that trips up almost every foreigner living in Korea their first winter.

새해 복 많이 받으세요, word by word

This is the full, correct, safe-with-anyone version. You'll also hear it shortened to 새해 복 많이 받아 (sae-hae bok ma-ni ba-da) in casual speech between close friends — same structure, just the plain command ending instead of -세요. Don't use the short form with anyone older than you; the politeness drop reads the same way it would in English if you barked "get lucky!" at your boss.

Two new years — one greeting

Korea runs two new year's days, and this is where most learners get confused. January 1 (신정, sinjeong, "new solar year") is a public holiday, but it's a quiet one — fireworks at Bosingak in Seoul, a day off, not much else. The real event is Seollal (설날), the lunar new year, which lands on a different date each year (late January to mid-February) and comes with three days off work, a mass migration back to hometowns, and food that takes two days to prepare.

새해 복 많이 받으세요 works for both. You'll hear it on January 1 as a generic "new year, new you" nicety, and you'll hear it constantly during Seollal, where it's the actual point of the holiday. If you only learn one new year's phrase, this is the one — it covers both calendars without sounding wrong on either.

Sebae: the bow, the money, and what you actually say

On the morning of Seollal, younger family members perform 세배 (sebae) — a formal, full floor bow — to their elders. You get up, you say the greeting, you bow. In return, the elder hands over 세뱃돈 (se-baet-don, "New Year money"), usually cash in a small envelope, and the amount scales with how far down the family tree you are: little kids get less than a working-age nephew, roughly.

The order matters: bow first, greeting after you're back upright, money last. Skipping straight to the greeting without the bow is what tourists do; actual sebae is the full sequence.

Texting it: who goes first (it's not you)

The unwritten rule: younger people text elders first, juniors text seniors first, and — this one surprises people — the person who owes more social debt (a favor, a mentorship, a recent introduction) usually sends theirs earliest, sometimes minutes after midnight. KakaoTalk gets flooded on New Year's Eve with 새해 복 많이 받으세요 messages, often with a New Year's card image attached, and replying late isn't rude exactly, but replying first to someone senior scores real points.