This is our third Chusok in Korea, but the first one we've ever really 'celebrated'. The date of Chusok is set by a lunar calendar, so it can fall anywhere in September or October. It is a celebration of the harvest, and they give harvest offerings to their ancestors and spend time tending graves. I don't know how many people still give offerings to their ancestors, but everyone still goes to their hometowns and tends graves and gives honor to their parents/grandparents.
This year, Chusok fell on a Monday. On Saturday our family went to the National Folk Museum where they had some performances and booths set up to make traditional style crafts. They also had an area with traditional games set up for anyone to participate.
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| samulnori, with buk & janggu drums |
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| painting traditional style masks |
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| too-hou, throwing arrows |
On Monday, we went out to a Korean folk village to see the founding activity of Chusok, the harvest time. I didn't see what I expected, but we still saw many other things and got to participate in some hands-on activities. (This was also our first time taking a bus somewhere in Korea! With dozens of buses coming and going every few minutes this can be rather daunting.)
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| grindstone |
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| pounding grinder |
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| selling rice candy |
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| making 'dok' (or 'tteok'), traditional rice cakes |
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| threshing |
You can take a boat ride around the small lake. I'm not sure what the barge looking thing in the middle is.
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