In the few weeks that I’ve been in Korea so far, I’ve had a lot of fun observing the differences and similarities between Korea and Japan. In a lot of cases, it really has been like comparing cousins. Very similar, very obviously from the same family, but at the same time, they are so different, it isn’t fair to either country to assume they’re the same.
One thing that is different between Korea and Japan are the holidays, and the importance of each one. In Japan, the most important holiday is, hands down, New Years. In Korea though, most would say that Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving, is the most important holiday in Korea.
Over the past few days, I’ve been grilling my students, via journal entries, on what the most important parts of Chuseok are, so I know exactly what I’m missing out on. I’ve been told the following:
- My Korean co-teacher explained that it always falls on the full moon. When I wiki’d Chuseok, it went into even more detail, saying that it lands on the harvest moon. I wish I had the lens on my camera to take photos of it.
- My students kept going on and on about Songpyeon (송편) which is a rice cake like mochi (餅) that they make with their grandparents and then proceed to stuff their face with.
- The younger kids also wouldn’t stop talking about Ganggangsullae (강강술래) which is a dance that nobody would show me but I’m sure is adorable or something of the like.
- Speaking of stuffing their face, they have a giant feast like we do back in Canada.
- The most important part of Chuseok is that everyone who lives in the cities goes to visit their grandparents in the country.
The whole point of Chuseok is to return to the home of your ancestors and pay respects to them. And so, from my understanding, Seoul and hopefully Anyang, will be nice and quiet while everyone else goes and gets their traditional on. 🙂
For those of us at Maple Bear, we were given a crash course on Chuseok on Friday, a few days early. Since our school, along with everyone else in Korea, will be closed for Chuseok, we had to do our kindergarten Chuseok day on Friday. There, I had my fill of cute children in poofy, traditional dresses. Since I teach the elementary kids, I didn’t have much to do with it, but it was still really cute to see all of the kids in their Chuseok finery.
How. Cute. Are your kids?? In their adorable tradtional costume and being all sweet and awwww!! I bet they’re not as sweet as they look though XD
Sounds like an interesting and lovely holiday – more cultures should encourage the idea of family and respect for the elderly. I like anything that has a long-standing cultural tradition, and this seems like a good one.
Enjoy your time off!
Chuseok is not really the Korean Thanksgiving. It is the Harvest Moon Festival Holiday. Celebrating Thanksgiving in America and probably Canada is just a matter of going home and eating a huge meal and watching sports etc. Chuseok in Korea is different. It is a time for Koreans to go back to their hometowns for different acestory rituals at different relative’s homes. Chuseok is much older than both the American and the Canadian Thanksgivings. Have a good Harvest Moon Harvest Festival.
Well, Chuseok really IS like the Korean Thanksgiving because it’s, like you said, the Harvest festival. That is timed to the moon. Thanksgiving, by it’s very name, is just a giving of thanks. Many cultures have a celebration at the end of their harvest, and it often includes a feast. Yes, the Korean one involves visiting ancestors. But it’s because they’re providing offerings from the harvest. In the three years I’ve been able to celebrate Chuseok, and from what I’ve been told from my Korean friends and students, their Chuseok sounds a lot like our thanksgivings. Go home, visit family, eat lots of food, do some fun stuff, and watch as many of the Chuseok specials as you can on television.
Perhaps it’s because the American thanksgiving has such a different history, but as a Canadian, our Thanksgiving is very similar to Chuseok, both in timing and the harvest customs. So it’s a very easy translation for me to make, and is really easy for my students and co-teachers to relate to.