Lets Know About Korean Thanksgiving Day!!

주석 (Chuseok) or Thanksgiving day is the biggest and most important holidays in Korea. There is three days holiday for Korean people to go back home and spend times with family.Family members from each house will gather together in order to share their food and spend their time together. Chuseok occurs in the brightest moon night which is that 15th day of the eighth months on the lunar calendar, which is around September and October on the Solar calendar.

In the past, the harvest season for Korean people ended around the eighth month on Lunar calendar. So Korean people gathered together, bringing their goods to celebrate and respected the god of harvesting, praying for a fertilized in the next year. Some families will respect their ancestors in this festival.

The food which is the symbol of Chuseok festival is the sweet rice cake. It was a moon shape, but recently it became a sphere shape. In the past there is a believed that women who can make the moon shape sweet rice cake beautifully will marry to a good man; however, the truth is they created such a believe to made those girls made a beautiful moon shape of sweet rice cake.

This is the sweet rice cake in the past.

This is the sweet rice cake nowadays.

So what do Korean people do in Chuseok day? In the morning family members will gather together, preparing their food to respect their ancestors. This activity can be called as 자례 (Charae) which Korean people will do this activity two times in a year include Chuseok day and Seollal day (Korean new year). After finishing their celebration, they will have a lunch together and play Korean traditional cards called 화투 So what do Korean people do in Chuseok day? In the morning family members will gather together, preparing their food to respect their ancestors. This activity can be called as 자례 (Charae) which Korean people will do this activity two times in a year include Chuseok day and Seollal day (Korean new year). After finishing their celebration, they will have a lunch together and play Korean traditional cards called 화투 (hwatoo). Then they will go to visit their ancestors tomb which is called 성묘 (seongmyo) to respect their ancestors and cleaning the tomb area, eradicate weeds and so on.

They will respect their ancestors in the house during the morning.

Then visit their ancestors tomb in the afternoon.

Moreover, there is a Korea traditional dance which people like to dance in Chuseok day, it is called 강강술래 (ganggangsulrae). In this traditional dance, women will wear hanbok dress, holding each other hands and form a circle, they will move around the circle and sing along the dance.

If you are interested in this kind of dance and want to see the example, here is an example for you 🙂