On the second morning of the lunar new year, the air at Taejongdae smells of salt and pine and the sweet smoke of roasting chestnuts, and the clatter you hear is not the wind off the strait but the flat slap of jegi against a dozen heels. Families spread blankets on the grass above the cliffs, a grandfather lines up a tuho pot, and someone is already arguing about the score of a yunnori throw. This is Seollal in Busan: a city that fills its parks and museums with games rather than shutting them, and where the holiday is something you can walk into.
Play the folk games at Taejongdae
Taejongdae Park, on the southern tip of Yeongdo, runs traditional folk-game activities over the Seollal period. The programme includes yunnori (the stick-tossing board game), jegichagi (keep the shuttlecock off the ground), and tuho (arrow-throwing into a pot). The 2026 events ran February 16–18, so expect a similar late-holiday window in 2027 — check the park's schedule closer to the date and arrive in the morning, when the grass is still free.
Make something at the Busan Museum
The Busan Museum marks the holiday with hands-on cultural activities — in 2026 these included making horse-themed New Year cards, alongside outdoor folk games on the museum grounds. Those events ran February 14–18, 2026. For 2027 the programme will be announced nearer the time; the museum is a good rainy-day or cold-morning anchor for families, and the outdoor games are open to passers-by.
Plan around the holiday's rhythms
Seollal is a family holiday, and the city's commercial life slows around it. Many department stores, malls and restaurants close on Seollal Day itself or for part of the holiday period, while convenience stores and shops in tourist areas often stay open — check hours in advance. National museums are generally closed on Seollal Day but open on the surrounding days, and most national museums are free. Intercity trains and buses sell out early, so book your travel as soon as your dates are fixed.
Eat, and know when the city pauses
Because restaurant closures cluster around Seollal Day, plan your eating around the edges of the holiday: eat well the day before and the day after, and keep a list of tourist-area shops and convenience stores as backup. The holiday's food culture is a family-table one — this is a time when Busan's restaurants are more likely to be shuttered than buzzing, so treat a good meal as something to arrange rather than stumble upon.
Make a day of Yeongdo
Taejongdae sits on Yeongdo, the island district south of the harbour, and the folk-game programme makes it a natural full-day outing: games on the grass, the cliffs and the sea views, and a return to the mainland in the evening. Pair it with the Busan Museum on another day of the holiday window, and you have a Seollal built around the city's own traditions rather than around shopping.
Start with the calendar: find the 2027 Seollal dates, book your train or bus the same week, and pencil in Taejongdae and the Busan Museum as your two fixed points. The rest of the holiday — the games, the grass, the sea air — arranges itself around them.