Chuseok
Chuseok is Korea's equivalent of Thanksgiving Day in the Western countries. It’s a national holiday, full of giving, sharing and gathering, to celebrate the coming of autumn and to pay respect to their ancestors.
Chuseok(추석) means “autumn eve” in Korean language. It is the biggest holiday of South Korea that is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. This holiday is a time when the majority of Korean people travel to their ancestral hometowns to see family and loved ones.
Origins of Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving
The exact origin of this holiday is unclear, it is assumed to have started before the Three Kingdoms Era of Korea. Many scholars believe it may have originated from ancient shamanistic celebrations of the harvest moon, perhaps as a worship ritual.
However, some scholars said that Chuseok actually began as a result of a weaving competition held between two princesses in the Silla dynasty. The goal was to see which team could weave the most. The fierce competition lasted for about a month, ending on the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar during the full moon. As punishment, the losing team had to prepare a bountiful feast for the victors.
Regardless of the truth, Chuseok has undoubtedly been an essential holiday for Korean people for a very long time.
What do Koreans do during Chuseok?
As we have known, respect for the elderly is an essential trait of Koreans. Chuseok isn’t just a feast celebration because there are three major duties that must be completed.
1. Bulcho(벌초) Bulcho is cutting the weeds and anything that has grown around the graves of Korean family members. The family will go to their passed away ancestors’ graves and pick up the weeds and anything around it to discard. This is an important task for families during Chuseok holiday because graves that have weeds around them are assumed that the passed away ancestor has undutiful children which is considered embarrassing for the family.
2. Seongmyo (성묘) Respect must be paid to the grave, often in the form of bowing before it and offering alcohol, fruits, meat, and Shikhye (Korean sweet rice drink).
3. Charye (차례) An elaborate table setting of food offered to the ancestors at home. There are several meticulous steps to setting this up and doing it properly, such as lighting candles before the alcohol is poured in exactly three different cups and bowing twice after it. Each dish also has a specific area of the table it needs to go on.
Once the tasks are completed, it's time to play. These games are outdated, and families will normally gather to just chat and drink after dinner or play go-stop, but they're still often put on display at public events.
Games played during Chuseok
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| Tuho (Arrow Throwing) |
While there is no shortage of traditional games that are played during Chuseok festivities, some of the most popular include Tuho (Arrow Throwing), Neolttwigi (Seesaw Jumping), and Yut Nori.
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| Neolttwigi (Seesaw Jumping) |
Tuho involves throwing arrows into a narrow 2-meter-wide jar. Neolttwigi is a see-saw game where two people sit on either side of a longboard and then challenge each other to jump higher and higher. Yut Nori, possibly the most famous traditional Korean "board game", is played with stitched cloth, Yut sticks, a small bowl, and small tokens.
Food
Koreans celebrate Chuseok by making special foods, particularly a certain kind of rice cake called Songpyeon(송편). Songpyeon is Chuseok’s iconic food, made with finely ground new rice and the dough is kneaded into small round shapes and filled with sesame seeds, chestnuts, red beans, or other similar ingredients. The rice cakes are arranged upon layers of pine needles as they are steamed, filling the home with the delicate and fresh fragrance of autumn. On the eve of Chuseok, family members gather to make Songpyeon together, illustrating the importance of family in Korean society.
What does Chuseok look like in North Korea?
In South Korea, the Chuseok holiday period usually lasts for three days including the day before and after Chuseok. North Koreans, on the other hand, have only one day off for Chuseok, so it is impossible to see something like South Korea’s annual mass migration in the North.
For South Korea, Chuseok is one of the nation’s largest and most celebrated traditional holidays, along with the Lunar New Year’s Day while in North Korea, the country banned official Chuseok celebrations in 1967, saying that the holiday runs against the socialist way of living. But it allowed citizens to visit their ancestors’ graves for Chuseok in 1972 and designated Chuseok as a traditional holiday again in 1988. Still, North Korea does not use the term “the nation’s largest holiday” when referring to Chuseok.
The traditional holiday, however, places a heavy burden on North Korean women, too, as they do most of the work preparing meals on the occasion. While gender equality is ensured under North Korean law, many women suffer from stress and physical fatigue around the holiday. But it doesn’t go as far as to become a social issue in the North, unlike in South Korea where even a new term was coined to indicate the post-holiday blues after the traditional holiday.
North Korean Songpyeon is twice as big as the South Korean one. Some Songpyeon in the Gaeseong region are three times larger. The rice cake varies by region, depending on what ingredients are used as fillings. In North Hamgyong Province, for example, vegetables, pork and tofu are mixed to make fillings. Kimchi or the year’s new crop of kidney beans can be put inside occasionally. Just like South Korean people, North Koreans believe that those who make pretty Songpyeon will have a pretty daughter. North Koreans do not place Songpyeon on the memorial service table for ancestors. They serve flat rice cake with decorative patterns called jeolpyeon(절편) instead. That is, they make Songpyeon to share with their family and relatives, not to offer for a memorial rite.
In terms of Chuseok ceremonies, people in South and North Korea are not much different. Early Chuseok morning, they hold a special memorial service for deceased ancestors. Food and drinks are prepared as offerings for the ritual. Then, they visit ancestral graves with their family members. After that, people in the village get together to play some sports or folk games, such as swinging and Korean wrestling.
Conclusion
South Korea and North Korea’s Chuseok may look different in some ways, but people on both sides love to share food and spend time with their family during the traditional holiday. On this pleasant occasion, however, some people feel even lonelier. There are family members separated by the Korean War, home-lost people who left their North Korean homes a long time ago and North Korean defectors who escaped from the North relatively recently. Unfortunately, they are unable to go to their North Korean hometowns to see their loved ones again, even though South and North Korea are geographically close.
In 2023, Chuseok falls on September 28. We hope people in both South and North Korea will have a happy Chuseok holiday. On Chuseok night, Korean people, especially the older generations, will look up at the large full moon and make a wish for their separated family members on the other sides of the border in hopes to see each other once again.
References:
● Chuseok in North Korea |
● Chuseok’s Food |
https://asiasociety.org/korea/chuseok-korean-thanksgiving-day
● Korean Folk Games Played during Chuseok |
https://www.chuseok.info/games
● Cultural History of Celebrating Chuseok |
https://thekrazemag.com/latest-updates/2018/9/22/cultural-history-of-celebrating-chuseok
● Things to do during Chuseok in South Korea |
https://www.koreatravelpost.com/things-to-do-during-chuseok/
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