Over its three-day duration, Chuseok involves many different practices, enjoyments, and customs. While the holiday includes games and fun activities, it also involves traditional ceremonies, such as Seongmyo (성묘) and Charye (차례).
During Chuseok, many Koreans practice Seongmyo, the act of visiting and cleaning family members’ graves. Seongmyo allows families to connect with each other while also acknowledging and showing respect and appreciation to their ancestors. Sometimes, people present offerings to the gravesites to signal respect for the generations before them.
During Lee’s time in Korea, at ten-years-old, he expressed that he once practiced Seongmyo by visiting his family’s graves to honor his ancestors.
Similarly, families present a traditional memorial service called Charye to honor their ancestors. Charye is normally held very early in the morning or later in the evening. The tradition is usually done at the family’s shrine for their ancestors, but on occasions where there isn’t one, it’s held in the main room of their house. Charye involves offerings of traditional foods prepared and spread over a table, the burning of incense, bowing and praying.
Additionally, games are a large part of Chuseok as well. Many Koreans play classic games such as the popular Yut Nori (윷놀이), Gonggi (공기), and Tuho (투호).
Yut Nori is a traditional board game played with yut sticks (wooden sticks), tokens, and a board. Although it’s played during Chuseok too, it’s mostly played during the Korean Lunar New Year. Yut Nori is played between two teams. Each turn, a player throws the yut sticks and either puts a new piece down or moves an already placed one on the board.
Lynn has celebrated Chuseok in the past, often playing games with friends and family.
“We played games like Gonggi like the squid game, or Yut Nori sometimes during Chuseok,” Lynn said.
Lee also shared a connection, playing games as a common theme of his family celebrating Chuseok, too.
“It’s a very famous game…Yutnori! Every time, we play it on Chuseok,” Lee said.
Traditional festivities also take place during Chuseok, including enjoyments such as Ganggangsullae (강강술래), Ssireum (씨름), and Talchum (탈춤). Both Ganggangsullae and Talchum are a part of performing arts, whereas ssireum is similar to a traditional Korean wrestling game.
Lynn has attended a Korean immersion language and culture school, where she has participated in the entertainment of Ganggangsullae. She explained how the experience was learning it.
“[At the Korean language school], we´d do a group dance called ganggangsullae where we would dance in a circle, and unwind the circle and stuff like that,” Lynn Kim said.
As a time to celebrate the bountiful harvest in the past, food on Chuseok has always been one of the main highlights of the holiday. According to Chuseok Info, some typical foods eaten during Chuseok are Jeon (전), which are like savory fried pancakes with a variety of fillings including meats and vegetables, Galbijim (갈비찜) also known as braised short beef, fruits like Korean pears and apples, soups, alongside a variety of side dishes.
Lynn shared which foods she ate with friends and family during Chuseok.
“Sometimes I would go over to a family-friends house during Chuseok, too,” Lynn said. “We would make food together there and eat a bunch of traditional food like kimchi, kimchi jjigae (stew), stuff like that.”
Additionally, the most well-known food stemming from the holiday is Songpyeon (송편), known as a type of rice cake. Songpyeon comes in an array of colors such as yellow, pink, purple, green, and white, while also being versatile in its filling, which typically consists of nuts and bean paste content. Its shape is familiarly known as a half-moon, but the shape of the rice cake varies over regions of South Korea.
Lee has eaten jeon and a variety of meat over Chuseok. He explained how his family uniquely makes their songpyeon.
“The main [food] is rice cake,” Lee said. “Our family mostly sometimes puts honey or beans, but the main difference between each one is the filling.”
According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Korea, songpyeon symbolizes growth and prosperity for the future. Many families prepare these foods together, recipes passed down over generations, often bonding over shared conversations while cooking, and later savoring the delicious food.
Lynn shared how she returned from Korean school and helped her mom make songpyeon in the past.
“After 12 p.m. in Korean school, I would come back home [during Chuseok] and I would make songpyeon at home,” Lynn said.
Lynn also commented on why she enjoys songpyeon and sharing food during Chuseok.
“I look forward to eating songpyeon during Chuseok because it’s not normal for me to eat it often [in daily life]. The food tastes better when I’m with my friends and family.”
Recently, RCHS’s Korean Culture Club hosted a meeting discussing the Chuseok holiday for its attendees. They presented decorated slide shows, displayed with standard information and pictures to inform others about that aspect of Korean culture through holidays.
Rebecca Kim shared what inspired her to plan the meeting centered around the theme of Chuseok as an officer of the club.
“Since this is a Korean Culture Club, we believe that beyond just learning about K-pop or K-dramas, it’s important to learn about real Korean culture and traditions. I feel like the way the media presents Korea nowadays is very surface-level and sometimes gives a bad representation of what our culture really is,” Rebecca said.
Rebecca also said that in the future, she plans to go more in-depth with presenting information on Korean culture, as well as keeping the essence of the socialness where people can form connections in the club.
