Offering Newly Harvested Products to Ancestral Souls and Paying Tribute to the Ancestors’Virtues

There is an old saying in Korea: “I wish things were just as on Hangawi, no more, no less.” Hangawi, or Chuseok, is the Korean harvest festival falling on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. It is associated with abundance, so the saying reflects the desire for a plentiful life. This year, Chuseok falls on September 12th in the solar calendar, which is the earliest date during the last eight years. With one of the biggest holidays just around the corner, Koreans are in a festive mood hustling and bustling to prepare for visiting ancestors’ graves, receiving guests, and celebrating the harvest of the new crops.
Korea’s neighboring countries - China and Japan -also observe similar holidays. In China, the holiday is called “Jungchujeol” and falls on the same day as in Korea. Chinese people celebrate the holiday by preparing foods like moon-cakes, pomegranates, and dates for ancestral rites.
The similar holiday in Japan is called “Obon” (お盆). It usually falls on August 15th in the solar calendar, but some regions observe it in July. On this holiday, there is a custom of holding the Buddhist ceremonies to worship ancestors and pray for prosperity.
The American holiday equivalent to Korean Chuseok is Thanksgiving. It falls on the fourth Thursday of November when Americans give thanks after gathering harvest grains. Eating turkey on Thanksgiving Day is a signature rite for Americans.

The Biggest Full Moon of the Year

“Chuseok” (秋夕) literally means “an autumn (chu, 秋) evening (seok, 夕).” As the meaning implies, a pleasant fall evening awaits us on this day with the brightest full moon.
On Chuseok, the biggest full moon of the year comes up in the sky. With the legacy of the agrarian society, Koreans attach a special importance to this holiday that starts the harvesting season. Chuseok is the day when Koreans get the chance to see the results of tedious farming labor and express their gratitude to farmers and producers for a good harvest. On this day, Koreans traditionally prepare the dishes with newly harvested grains and other farming products. They offer the dishes during ancestral rites and visit ancestors’ graves. All these customs are designed to pay respect to the ancestors and honor their virtues.
Through a variety of games and performances, Koreans can boost the feel of festivity. They also often share dishes and thus use the holiday as an opportunity to strengthen the bonds with their neighbors and relatives.
After the rapid industrialization of Korea, the significance of Chuseok has gone down. Still, there are long lines of bumper-to-bumper traffic as many Koreans hit the road to go to their hometowns for the holiday and visit the graves of their forefathers. In other words, even in the bustle of modern life, they inherit the traditional meaning of Chuseok.

Songpyeon, the Typical Chuseok Dish

On Chuseok, it is customary to make a lot of scrumptious dishes and boozes with newly harvested grains and other farming produce. But the most representative dish of the festival is songpyeon. These are half-moon shaped rice cakes that are made by mixing the newly harvested rice powder with hot water and filling them with young soybeans, sesame seeds, and chestnuts. The process continues by shaping the cakes in the mold of a half moon and steaming them on a bed of pine needles. The final stage - steaming on the pine needles - explains the old name of the cakes: “song-byeong” (松餠), or “pine needle rice cakes.”
Historically, each region in Korea has its own way of making songpyeon, with the ingredients that are a specialty of the area. People in the coastal area in Pyeongan-do, now in North Korea, used to make clam-shaped rice cakes in the hope of digging out ample amounts of clams. In Jeolla-do, people make crescent-shaped rice cakes that are high in nutritional value, colorful, and look like a flower. Those who reside in Chungcheong-do make songpyeon using sweet pumpkin as a main ingredient, while people in Gangwon-do cook the cakes using acorn and potato that are the principal agri-products of the region.

Among a variety of festive dishes on Chuseok, taro soup does not fail to be on the memorial service table for the ancestral rites. The best way to appreciate the taste of the soup is to cook it by boiling dried kelp mixed with beef. Some other delicious foods of the season are hwayangjeok (beef and vegetable kebab, made by seasoning, stir-frying, and skewering mushrooms, balloon flower roots, and beef; nureumjeok -Korean-style shish kebab, it’s made in a similar way to hwayangjeok, but in the last step the skewered ingredients are covered with flour and egg) and yuldanja (made by applying honey and boiled chestnut crumbs onto round cakes made of glutinous rice flour).
Of course, alcoholic drinks cannot be ruled out of the festive food list either. Liquor drunk on Chuseok is called baekju (白酒, literally “white liquor”) and nicknamed sindoju (新稻酒, literally “new rice liquor”) as it is made of freshly-harvested rice.

A Variety of Plays, Games, and Performances for a Bumper Harvest

On Chuseok Koreans enjoy numerous traditional plays. Ganggangsullae (a traditional Korean circle dance game performed by women under the full moon), juldarigi (tug-of-war), ssireum (traditional Korean wrestling), and so-nori (cow play) are just some of them. These are not just to entertain, but to wish for a good yield and celebrate the abundant harvest in advance. Ganggangsulae was inspired by a full moon, which symbolizes abundance. On the night of Chuseok, around the time when the full moon comes up, young girls used to enjoy singing while dancing in a circle, hand-in-hand, in a broad yard or a lawn.
Juldarigi, tug-of-war, was enjoyed by all the people in a village. They often divided into two teams symbolizing the female and male forces of the natural world. The game is considered an agricultural rite to augur the results of the year’s farming. Thus, if the team representing the female concept won, it was thought that the harvest that year would be rich.
Ssireum is one of the Chuseok plays in which men can show off their strength. In the past, the competition took place on a lawn or sandy beach and drew a lot of spectators. The final winner of the tournament would gain the title of “Jangsa” and was awarded cotton cloth, rice, or a calf.
As for so-nori, it is a funny performance in which people used a straw mat to disguise themselves as a cow and called from door to door for all to get together and share foods.

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