[Chuseok][Korean_Thanksgiving]
2014 Korean Thanksgiving Day!
Hello, everyone!
How's going these days?!
Late August-early September's hot weather and high humidity give feeling like
"It is still summer!"
However,
summer is summer, fall is fall.
August is August, September is September.
Usually, Koreans consider September as beginning of fall!
<Source - bing.com>
Also,
in fall season,
Koreans are waiting for "Chuseok", which is Korean Thanksgiving Day :)
How many of you know about Chuseok?!
Have you ever heard of?
Today, Tong blog will introduce Chuseok to you guys!!
<Source - Wikipedia>
Chuseok, originally known as hangawi,
(meaning "the great middle of autumn" from traditional Korean language),
is a major harvest festival, which is equivalant to "Thanksgiving Day"
Like many other harvest festivals, it is held around the Autumn.
As a celebration of the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and
share a feast of Korean traditional food such as songpyeon (handmade rice cake) and etc.
In Chuseok, you would see many traditional customs of Koreans.
Charye, Seongmyo, and Beolcho are the activities that you can see the most often times.
Charye
It is held in the morning of Chuseok, usually honoring previous generations.
Koreans believe when a person is passed away, even if their physicals are dead,
but spirits remained to protect the descendants.
Therefore, the descendants honor and show their favor toward ancestors by serving speicial foods for the spirits.
Usually, Koreans do bows in front of the set-table as you can see the above picture.
Seongmyo and Beolcho
these are also done around Chuseok week.
Seongmyo is a visiting to ancestral grave sites.
Koreans usually hold a small ritual ceremony in front of the graves.
Beolcho is the activity to remove weeds around the grave.
It contains meaning of repect by cleaning their ancestor’s site.
<Source - Calendar from Naver.com>
This year, Chuseok comes earlier than usual!
Most of times, Chuseok comes in middle-late of September.
The reason the date of Chuseok is different in every year is
because the tradition follows the lunar calendar.
Currently, most countries follow the solar calendar to count any date for their normal operation.
However, countries like Korea, still adopt their lunar calendar
when they count for their traditional holidays.
As a result, Chuseok can come early like this year,
but can be much later than this year due to count measurement!!
In the year of 2014, Chuseok holidays are scheduled from 7th to 9th.
September 10th is the "replacement holiday" since the serial holidays start from "Saturday"
which is the day of rest even if it is not in the middle of Chuseok.
Most of governmental offices and banks take a break at 10th as well.
Unfortunately, some corporations do not have an additional holiday at 10th. :(
<Source - Yonhap News>
In the Chuseok time, you would see the Korean versioin of Exodus!
thousands of cars will leave Seoul to have a time for being together with family.
Currently, the culture has been changed little bit.
To avoid the huge traffic, many people see their parents, family, and relatives
earilier or later than the Chuseok holidays.
However, majority of people still decide to have a trip in the days of Chuseok.
In TV, many special programs get aired.
Also, you would see Hanbok, the Korean traditional costume, many times.
The most important thing is,
Chuseok is the festival!!
Even though economically hard time is going on, Koreans still celebrate their traditions.
In this case, Why not for joining with Koreans?! :)
<source - Chungchung Today, http://www.cctoday.co.kr/>