In Korea, one of the biggest holidays of the year is Chuseok. While it is commonly called “Korean Thanksgiving”, the holidays don’t have anything in common; both origin and celebration are significantly different. Chuseok is a mid-autumn harvest festival period that aligns on a full moon day. To celebrate a good harvest, it is tradition to visit ancestral hometowns and feast on traditional Korean food such as yakgwa, Korean pear, and rice wine. While not as common now, Korean people wear traditional Korean clothing called hanbok. The two biggest events during Chuseok are to do ancestor memorial services at home and to visit the ancestral graves where family members will clean up their family’s graves. At the graves, meals are placed as offerings to the ancestors. For Chuseok many places close, including schools, banks, post offices, government buildings, stores, and some restaurants.

For Chuseok, I spent 4 days with some of my family members and relaxed. The family I spent time with doesn’t do the ancestor traditions due to the fact that it takes a lot of time and is not very fun, especially for kids. One day I learned how to make a traditional Korean bean paste dessert; that was fun and relaxing. Honestly, they do not taste all that great, but they are super cute decorations.