The Food and the Games

    After all the duties are preformed its now time for the food and games. Chuseok celebrates the rich harvest season when fruit and grain are abundant. Using the newly harvested rice, people make steamed rice, rice cakes and liquor.

A bowl of Songpyeon

   One of the major foods prepared and eaten during the Chuseok holiday is Songpyeon, a Korean rice cake which contain stuffing made with healthy ingredients such as sesame seeds, black beans, mung beans, cinnamon, pine nut, walnut, chestnut, jujube, and honey. When making Songpyeon, steaming them over a layer of pine-needles is critical. The word “song” in songpyeon means "a pine tree" in Korean. The pine needles not only contribute to songpyeon’s aromatic fragrance, but also its beauty and taste. On the eve of Chuseok, the entire family gathers together to make songpyeon.

   Another popular Korean traditional food people eat during Chuseok is Hangwa.  It is an artistic food decorated with natural colors and textured with patterns. Hangwa is made with nutritious ingredients, such as rice flour, honey, fruit, and various roots. People use natural ingredients to express various colors, flavors, and tastes. Because of its decoration and nutrition, Koreans eat Hangwa not only during Chuseok, but also for special events like weddings and birthday parties.

The many colorful kinds of hangwa

   Another major element of Chuseok is traditional liquor. On Chuseok, families and relatives gather together and hold a memorial service for their ancestors with liquor made of the newly harvested rice. After the memorial service, they sit together and spend some time as a family, 
drinking the liquor and food.

   A variety of folk games are played on Chuseok to celebrate the coming of Autumn and rich harvest. Village folk dress themselves to look like a cow or a turtle, and go from house to house along with a Nongak band playing music. Other common folk games played on Chuseok are Archery and Ssireum (Korean Wrestling). Though folk games also vary from region to region.

 

 Ssireum is the most popular Korean sports played during Chuseok. Korean men usually hold Ssireum contest during Chuseok. Ssireum takes place inside a circular sand pit where two men wrestle each other while holding tight on each other's satba, red and blue band, and a player loses when a player’s upper body touches the ground. The ultimate winner becomes 'Cheonha Jangsa', 'Baekdu Jangsa', or 'Halla Jangsa'; these all mean “the most powerful”. Due to its popularity among both the young and the old, Ssireum contest is being held more frequently, not limited on the important holidays.

   The Ganggangsullae is a traditional folk dance under the full moon in the night of Chuseok. Women wearing Hanbok make a big circle holding each other's hands and singing while dancing altogether in a big circular motion. There are several stories about it's origin.

   One of the well-known stories says that the dance dates back to the Joseon Dynasty (1392 - 1910) when the Koreans were fighting against the Japanese invaders. The Korean army dressed the village women in military uniforms and had them dance around the mountain to look like that the Korean military was greater in number than it actually was from the enemy's side. The Koreans enjoyed their victory partly thanks to this scare tactic.

It's meaning and duties

   

Chuseok is a holiday where family members from near and far come together to share food, stories, and to give thanks to their ancestors for the abundant harvest. Chuseok is referred sometimes as the "Korean Thanksgiving". Originally known as "Hangawi", "Han" which means "Big" and "Gawi" which means "the ides of Autumn". It is celebrated when the full moon is at its brightest which occurs on the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar which falls between September to early October on the solar calendar.

   

   To celebrate the successful year, families will pack up and head home to their ancestral hometowns, usually to the home of their elders or the head of the household which are the grandparents or parents. This practice is called "Bon-ga" it basically means "main house".

   Chuseok is not just a celebration of feasts, there are three major duties that must be done during the first day of the holiday, these duties are Charye, Bulcho, and Sungmyo. Charye  is one of the ancestral memorial rites that have been done for thousands of years in Korea. It is done in the morning of Chuseok, and the family hold a memorial service for their ancestors. The meaning of Charye is "to return the favors and honor them". It is due to a belief that Koreans do not believe that a person is really dead when they physically die. They believe their spirits are still alive and protect the descendants, so they honor their ancestors by preparing special foods for them. Sungmyo and Bulcho are also done around the Chuseok week. Sungmyo is a visiting to the ancestral grave sites and Bulcho is the activity to remove and clean around the grave. It is to clean their ancestor's site.