Days to Celebrate... in Seoul!!! :-) # 1

<< Korean Thanksgiving Day-ChuSeok >>
As Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day on every 4th Thursday of November, Koreans celebrate Chuseok with families and give thanks to their ancestors for providing good wills to obtain rich result of harvest.

Starting from the Shila Era, this tradition has been annually practiced on August 15th(according to Lunar Calendar).

This year, Chu Seok is on September 14th(August 15th based on Lunar calendar).

Traditionally, on Chuseok, people gather with their relatives and celebrate their harvest. With the harvested food, people make lots of Chuseok food: Song phyun and other tteok(rice cake), numerous types of nuts(especially chestnut), other holiday food such as Jap chae(Korean Traditional noodle dish), dak(chicken) jjim(stew<-Korean Traditional Chicken Stew), different types of jeon(pan fried meat cake with minced onions,and chives, cut fish, or vegetables(usually sweet potatoes, eggplant, mushrooms), pan-cooked fish, han gwa(Korean Traditional cookies), freshly picked fall fruits(apples, Korean pears, persimmons, dried dates, etc ***but NO peaches!!!), seasoned vegetables (na-mool <--seasoned vegetables in bibimbab ***grounded pepper and garlic are NOT added ), meat based soup, Korean traditional drink(shik hae<-made w/ rice), alcoholic drink, etc.

After all the ceremonies, greetings and visit to ancestors'graves, and of course meal time, people play Korean Traditional Chu seok games: "Sa Mul(Korean traditional musical instruments) nori(game)", "So(cow) nori(game)", "Gang Gang su wol lae, etc. In old times, farmers in groups played musical instruments to enjoy holiday later calling this "Sa Mul nori." "So nori" is a game that makes a person dress up as a cow and visit houses in the town with a long line of people

The main purpose of this national holiday is celebrating the joyful harvest with families and gathering in hometown, giving thanks to ancestors for looking after us, and enjoying good food before the cold winter approaches us.

So, do visit families and spend some time with them making and eating Korean traditional food!

Have a joyful Chu Seok!!! :-)

***fun fact about Chu Seok!!!:-)
There is a myth that if a woman(in old days only women prepared for food)makes pretty Song phyun, she will marry well.

-image of Song phyun(special rice cake for Chu seok)-image of Chu Seok meal for ancestors-image of ancestor memorial services-image of "Gang Gang Su Wol Lae"