Celebrate Chuseok in Korea, Special Korean Thanksgiving Day!
In this article we will share to you about Chuseok in Korea, special korean thanksgiving day for parents. Chuseok is special holiday in korea. Let’s learn more about this special holiday in South Korea, make sure you read until the end to get the most out of this information.
Chuseok in Korea
Chuseok (추석), as known as “Korean Thanksgiving Day”, is a significant public holiday in South Korea. It’s just same significant as Seollal (Korean New Year). Chuseok lasts three days, the day of chuseok, the day before and the day after it. Chuseok means Autumn Eve, it’s actually used to be for celebrating the autumn harvest. This year of 2021, Chuseok will be celebrated from Sep 20th (Mon) to Sep 22nd (Wed).
Chuseok Tradition
Credit to Naver
Koreans usually return to their hometown to visit and spend time with their family during Chuseok holiday, so you can expect a traffic jam during this holiday especially on the way out of Seoul. However, right before Chuseok, koreans usually visit the graves of their ancestors for seongmyo rituals to show respect and perform beolcho (cleaning the overgrown grass around the grave).
Early morning of Chuseok , there are a traditions called charye, in which koreans pay respect to their ancestors by put their most favourite foods (rice, meat, rice cakes, fruits, vegetables) and drinks (makgeolli, soju, maekju) on the table in front of their pictures. They pray for them, thank them and ask them for the blessing, protections and prosperity. Modern koreans do this at home, yet ancient korean used to do it on the grave site.
Chuseok Foods
Credit to Korea
The well known representative food for celebrate Chuseok is songpyeon (송편), half-moon shaped rice cakes filled with a variety of healthy ingredients such as sweet red beans, sugar and sesame seeds, pine nuts and honey.
Credit to Factsaboutkorea
Songpyeon uses half moon shape as a symbol of victory and a bright future, originating from a legend about Silla’s win over the Kingdom of Baekje in which Silla (the half moon) beat Baekje (the full moon).
Chuseok Holiday Korea
Credit to Korea
Koreans will always make sure to give a special gifts for their family. For them not to bring anything is a violation against this Chuseok Thanksgiving Day. So you can expect to see a lot of stores offering all kinds of gifts products before chuseok holiday. Some popular Chuseok gifts is fruit baskets, cake, flowers, cosmetics and ginseng root or similar products that promise to improve health.
Chuseok Activities
Credit to Tistory
If you see many pretty women dancing and singing together in hanbok during Chuseok, then for your informations, this called Ganggansullae (강강술래). This tradition actually come from a great war tactic from Admiral Yi Sun-shin, the most famous joseon admiral’s.
During Imjin War (Japanese invasion 1592-1598), Admiral Yi Sun shin had women dress up as soldiers and dance in circles around fires at night at the mountains to make the japanese soldiers think that there was a large number of korean army.
“Happy Chuseok” in Korean
- Jeulgeoun Chuseok 즐거운 추석 되세요 – Have a happy Chuseok.
- Chuseok yeonhyu jal bonaeseyo 추석 연휴 잘 보내세요– Have a nice Chuseok holiday.
- Pungyoropgo haengbokhan chuseok doeseyo 풍요롭고 행복한 추석 되세요 – Have a happy and prosperous Chuseok!
Thanksgiving In Korea
How do you think about Chuseok in Korea? Do you like Chuseok celebrations? Let me know in the comment sections!
