Chuseok

Autumn evening

Chuseok means “autumn evening”; the festival is also called Hangawi, “the great middle of autumn”. As a celebration of the harvest, it sends huge numbers of people from the big cities back to their ancestral hometowns.

The day begins early with charye, a memorial rite at home. Freshly harvested rice, songpyeon, meat, fruit and vegetables are laid out for the ancestors, traditionally in a set order on the table — rice and soup to the north, fruit and vegetables to the south. Families then go to the graves of their immediate ancestors in seongmyo, trimming the grass and clearing weeds, beolcho, and offering food and drink. The rest of the day is spent together, often playing folk games. Many people wear hanbok, and the National Folk Museum in Seoul holds festivities.

Weaving contests and half-moons

By popular belief, Chuseok goes back to gabae in the kingdom of Silla: a month-long weaving contest between two teams, after which the losers treated the winners to a feast. Many scholars also see its roots in ancient celebrations of the harvest moon.

A legend from the Three Kingdoms era explains the shape of songpyeon. Under King Uija of Baekje, a message was found on a turtle’s back reading “Baekje is a full moon, Silla is a half-moon” — foretelling the fall of Baekje and the rise of Silla. Ever since, the half-moon has been a sign of a bright future, and families eat half-moon songpyeon under the full moon. It is said that a single woman who makes pretty songpyeon will find a good husband.