Chusok

Today is Wednesday. Zane is off from school. Abe is off from work. Koreans across the nation are celebrating a holiday deep in tradition known as Chusok. Here's what our Happenings publication has to say about it. (Happenings is a monthly publication designed to make patrons aware of what's happening in Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs. I relied on this publication while we were at Ft. Hood and anticipate receiving a lot of valuable information from it while we're here in Korea.)

"Chusok is a major harvest festival celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month on the Lunar calendar. Many scholars claim Chusok originates from ancient shamanistic celebrations of the harvest moon. Throughout Korea, there will be a mass exodus of Koreans returning to their hometowns to pay respects to the spirits of their ancestors. Festive occassions like Chusok demonstrate the importance of family to Korean society. Family members, usually from the paternal line, get together to prepare food, honor their ancestors and cherish relatives, both living and deceased. Chusok is a reminder that families are connected and bonded in the same fortune and ancestors live through the offspring as part of people's daily lives.

On Chusok morning the family carefully prepares the ancestral table for a memorial ceremony. The house of the eldest son is usually the site of the gathering. Family members arrive early in the morning to participate in the ceremony. The eldest male descendant from the line of eldest sons (even if he is not the eldest male in the family) usually presides over the ceremony. There are many rounds of bowing to the floor from a kneeling position, and ancestors are offered wine and food.

After the ceremony all the food is taken out of the room and rearranged for the family to eat. After the meal some of the food that has been set aside is taken to the graves of the ancestors, where there will be more bowing and prayers.

Chusok is also a time to wear traditional clothing and play traditional games.

Many communitites will hold mini-festivals with dancing and singing to celebrate the harvest and the arrival of autumn.

For Americans, Chusok is a time to stay home and out of the way. The highways will be more like parking lots, and travel will be next to impossible. If you're lucky enough to be invited to a local Korean home, go and enjoy the Chusok food. You won't be sorry."

And so, for the most part, we have stayed home and out of the way. We took the boys to storytime at the library (on-post) and have been hanging out at the hotel the rest of the time. Zane used his day off to complete all of his homework for the week. Maybe next year we will venture out and see what's happening in our little town of Anjung-Ri, if anything. Or better yet, maybe we'll be invited to the home of a Korean friend.