Just some of the gift sets available for the masses.
추석 (Chuseok) is one of the biggest holidays in the Korean calendar. Sometimes compared to the American holiday of Thanksgiving, 추석 traditionally celebrates ancestors, gathering with relatives, and food. A traditional spread of food celebrates the harvest season, just like the American holiday, although the foods are quite different. One common food is 송편 (song-pyeon), which are half-moon-shaped rice cakes with sweet fillings (e.g. honey, red bean paste, or chestnut paste) steamed over a layer of pine needles. Don't forget about bean sprouts, eggplant, mushrooms, squash, and sweet potato, red grapes, apples, oranges, pears, soybean paste, tofu, vegetables, flavors are avoided, as they squid, and fish, among many other things. The ceremony, called 차래 (charae) is considered a solemn one - one that the entire family participates in. Strong flavors among supposedly offend the ancestors, so they are avoided. Ask a Korean recently wrote about how to perform the traditional jesa ceremony - highly recommended whether you're performing one or not.
Although food is part of the Korean tradition, getting together with relatives is a high priority. Children wear 한복 and play games including 줄다리기 (juldarigi), or tug-of-war, and 씨름 (ssireum), a form of Korean wrestling. Adults pay their respects to their ancestors, which often means cutting the grass and tending to the burial area before the holiday, and offering food and drink at their graves.
Held on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month, the days before and after 추석 are also legal Korean holidays. This year, 추석 falls on a Wednesday, making it a nice mid-week break for a population that works harder than almost everyone else. Of course, schools and foreign English teachers will also get those three days off, making it a holiday everyone can celebrate.
If you've living in Korea, consider these three days off as a chance to rest or travel locally. Because a majority of Koreans will be traveling, your chances of traveling is slim at best. The roads are historically jammed, the trains sell out far in advance, and buses will often take twice as long to arrive at their destination. Now would be a great time to see that palace or temple you've not seen yet - the palaces around Seoul will offer free admission - but stay on your local subway or bus system.
Readers, what are you doing this Chuseok?
© Chris Backe - 2010
This post was originally published on my blog,Chris in South Korea. If you are reading this on another website and there is no linkback or credit given, you are reading an UNAUTHORIZED FEED.
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