Our little dragon turned 1 and we had a big birthday party.
We had lots of family and friends join us in the celebration. Our son’s first
birthday was a wonderful event. We Celebrated his Dol. It was a wonderful first
birthday. I designed and put together most of the decoration with the help of
my husband and my mom. A couple of items
were ordered from Etsy and my mom made the Dum Dum topiaries. We put in a lot
of work and it was totally worth it. Our son’s first birthday party was a
success.
My mother-in-law cooked a big Korean meal. She made both
vegetarian and meat dishes to accommodate all of our guests. I made cute little
tags so our guests knew what they were having. She made Bulgogi (both beef and
spicy pork). We had shrimp lo mein, vegetarian and meat yaki mandu, Crab Rangoon
and Cheese Rangoon, chicken wings, and rice.
My mother in law also made this beautiful watermelon basket
for fruit.
There was plenty of fruit and vegetables for our guests.
The big event at a Doljanchi is the Dol. I’m not Korean but
my son is a quarter Korean and my husband is half. I thought it was important
to have this celebration in honor of my husband’s family and heritage. I’m not
sure it was the most traditional but it was interesting and fun. It was a lot
like our son, a fusion of many traditions from both sides of his family.
We dressed our son up in his traditional clothing that his
grandma purchased for him and took some pictures.
Our guests were given tickets so they could bet on the
item(s) he would choose. We set up a Doljabi board that explained what the
choices were. I picked up the baskets set up to collect the tickets at The
Dollar Tree. I posted a description of the tradition at the table for the guests, since most of them were not Korean.
We laid out the items on the floor for our son to choose from.
I may have taken a little artistic license with the items and broadened their scope, but I didn't want the hem in out little Dragon.
- Book = Scholar
- Stethoscope = Scientist
- Paint set = Artist
- Gavel = Law
- Yarn = Long Life
- Ball = Athlete
- Money = Wealth
We also let him choose 2 items. Not one to fall back on, but 2 great interests. He chose the gavel first and then the paint set. We might end up with an artistic lawyer. Who knows?
