Chase's Doljanchi (1st Korean Birthday Party)

On Sunday, we had a party to celebrate Chase’s first birthday. We wanted to celebrate Chase’s birthday by having a semi-traditional Korean birthday party. In Korean culture, a Dol (돌) means baby's 1st birthday. A Dol is a big event for a baby in Korea and is celebrated with a party called the doljanchi (돌잔치).

We started planning for the Doljanchi weeks before the party. We knew that Jay’s sister, Wendy would not be able to attend the party. However, since she is excellent at scrapbooking, we knew that she could help out in a big way. We asked her if she could design the Doljabi board. After a lot of emailing back and forth, the board was finally completed and printed out at Staples.
Jay also wanted to make sure that there were Dol Go-Im (Towers) on displayed for the party. In our research, we found out that a Doljanchi party always has an odd number of towers for good luck. All three towers were made using an oatmeal container as the base. The first two towers were made with white and black goya beans and hot glue. The first tower took Jay over four hours to complete.

These Korean symbols mean Chase – 추격
This Korean symbol means Dol – 돌 (short for Doljanchi, 1st birthday)
Therefore, the pattern on this Dol Tower means: Chase’s Dol

The second tower took Jay over six hours to complete as it had a design on the front and the back.

Chase was born on December 12, 2009.
This is the Korean symbol for ox – 소. Korean astrology assigns twelve animals according to the year of one’s birth. Koreans believe that one’s animal determines ones personality and fate. Each year holds different things in store for each animal. 2009 is the year of the ox.The final tower only took about two hours to complete as it was a design made with peppermint candies.  There is no meaning to this tower, just a tower to make an odd number so that we could keep with Korean tradition.

On Sunday, we got to Jay’s parents early in the morning to set up for the expected 80 people. The guests would walk in the front door and be greeted with a decorated table telling them about the Doljanchi.

In the main room, we also set up the Doljanchi table.

When the guests arrived, they had some socializing time and enjoyed a number of Korean and American snacks.

About midway through the party, it was time for the highlight of the Doljanchi, the Doljabi. The Doljabi is when various objects are placed in front of the child and people watch to see what the child picks up first. Typical Doljabi items include pencil, thread, rice, microphone, ball, money, hammer and stethoscope. It is believed the item the child picks up symbolically foretells his or her own future. Although we do not believe in fortune telling, we thought that this event would be fun way to celebrate Chase’s birthday.

For Chase’s Doljabi, we used: a piece of string meaning long life, a drum meaning a musician, a hammer meaning carpenter, a ball meaning he would be athletic, a bible meaning he would be in the ministry, a toothbrush meaning a dentist and a computer mouse meaning he would be a computer engineer.

Before the Doljabi event, we dressed Chase up in his Hanbok, a traditional Korean outfit. We received Chase’s Hanbok as a gift from his Korean foster parents. It was packed in Chase’s carry-on luggage when he arrived at the airport back in October.

Once Chase was presented to the guests, Jay explained the Doljabi in more detail to everyone. We had purchased Korean prizes that would be given out to the people who correctly picked the item that Chase would choose.

Finally it was time. We moved everyone aside, set Chase down in front of all the items and let him go.

Chase immediately crawled to and picked up the toothbrush.

Here is the video of the Doljabi event.


After the Doljabi, we ate some of Chase’s birthday cake.

After cake, we opened a few of Chase’s presents.

Thanks to everyone who attended and helped make this a memorable event for Chase. We know that we are truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.