chuseok

Chuseok (pronounced Chew-sock) was a great experience, even though it was a bit of a marathon at times. In Korea, Chuseok is a holiday where the ancestors are celebrated through offering them food and drink. Generally, people go to their hometown to celebrate with their families. I went with my host family to Seoul for Chuseok. My host father has five brothers and there were all in Seoul with their families. We all crowded into five or six hundred square foot apartment for the festivities.

During the day before Chuseok, I mostly ate, played games with all the cousins and listened to people speaking in Korean. Jisu and I though about going shopping in Seoul, but it was pouring outside. That ended up being a wise choice because there was major flooding in the area we would have gone to. We watched on the news as people were walking in water up to their knees and the subway stations were closed.

The families split up for the night and I traveled about forty minutes to another house to sleep. The next morning (the actual day of Chuseok) we got up early and went back to my host father's oldest brother's apartment. All the women worked on making food and set up a table in the living room with the food on it. Then all the males gathered around the table, lit some incense, said a few words, and bowed before the food. Because I am not a male, I was not asked to participate in the rituals, although I did have to refuse the alcohol that was being passed around afterwards. Later, we made songpyeong, a traditional dessert. We took a rice-based dough, made it into a little cup, filled it with this sweet bean filling and pinched it closed. All the "uncles" thought that I made songpyeon very well, and apparently this means that I will marry a handsome man and have beautiful children. I won't object...

My host sisters and I headed into Seoul with the general intention of going to Starbucks. We first stopped at a Korean McDonalds for lunch. The menu is similar to America, although there are fewer healthy options (okay, no healthy options-not even diet cola) and a couple of interesting Korean/American combos. For example, there is the Bolgogi burger-but I did not try it so I cannot report on the flavour. Later in the day we left Seoul and headed back to Hongseong.

On the whole, Chuseok was a great time to get to know my host family better and experience some of the Korean traditions. I also loved catching up on sleep and having a break from my school work.

 Here we are making Songpyeon!