The upcoming Thanksgiving is on Thursday, November 23rd. During Thanksgiving, Americans and Canadians give thanks. Pilgrims, who were the first to celebrate Thanksgiving, celebrated it for the past abundant harvests and feasts. Families share their thankfulness and hold a big feast. One of the well-known foods in the feast is turkey.
In Korea, Koreans celebrate Chuseok, which is the Korean version of Thanksgiving. This holiday originated from the agricultural society that was a very long time ago during the reign of the third king of the kingdom of Shilla. In ancient times, ancestors celebrated ‘Gabae’, which is a monthly weaving contest between two teams. This Gabae became worship rituals as more and more harvests started to rise. Nowadays, it’s celebrated to give thanks to their ancestors for the bountiful harvests and feasts.
Just like Thanksgiving, Chuseok is celebrated from September 28th to September 30th. For 3 days, Koreans celebrate the holiday – each day in a different way.
On the first day, families visit their hometowns and gather around with their friends and family. Koreans prepare a feast to eat together with their families and friends. The feast consists of many of Korea’s traditional foods, such as Song-Pyeon, noodles like Japchae, different kinds of soup like seaweed and Dwenjang soup – and other vegetables, like Namul. Song-Pyeon is one of the most familiar and popular foods that are in the feast. They are rice cakes that resemble a crescent moon, and in those rice cakes are sweet and delicious fillings that you can put inside. Some Koreans make Song-Pyeon together with their families.
On the second day, families prepare another feast – this time for their ancestors. One difference from the first day is that the families do not eat their feast first. Families first honor their ancestors by bowing two times. Next, families bow to their grandparents one time (bowing two times is for the ancestors – it is considered rude if you bow two times). After that, families get to eat their feast, which are fruits like apples, pears, and other delicious traditional food.
On the last day, families play traditional games to celebrate the last day of Chuseok. How you celebrate this day depends on the family. The most common game played on Chuseok is Yut. Yut is a traditional board game in Korea, in which the ‘Yut’ plays the role of the dice when we think of the modern board game that we play right now.
In Rosemont Middle School, the Korean PTA brought food for this holiday. Rosemont Middle School has a big Korean community. Students and teachers enjoyed this holiday – find out how you can celebrate Chuseok.
