Spotlight On Korea: Mid-Autumn Festival (Chuseok)
Last week, Koreans celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Chuseok, where they honoured their ancestors, gave gifts to one another and enjoyed traditional food.
Chuseok (추석), literally translates to “autumn eve” and takes place yearly on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Lunar calendar in order to welcome the harvest moon.
On the normal calendar, this date falls usually between September and October, in the middle of the cropping months.
The festival is celebrated for three days, with this year’s Chuseok was observed on the 17th of September and is one of Korea’s largest traditional holidays. It is often referred to as Korea’s Thanksgiving.
In modern times, Chuseok’s focus is on honouring one’s ancestors, and as a result, a mandatory annual pilgrimage home ensues with sees the masses return to their hometowns from the big cities.
Over the holiday, families will engage in various traditional activities commemorating their elders.
The first day is Charye, a ritual where an array of food is prepared for an offering of respect to your ancestors. Family is the bedrock of Korean culture, with Charye celebrating the notion that our ancestors live through and with the younger present generation continuously.
An important part of the festival is the Seongmo (성묘). This is a visit by the family to their ancestral grave sites where each of them takes turns to bow at their ancestors and remove weeds around the grave and trim the grass. They also offer food, drinks and crops to their ancestors.
One of the main food the Koreans prepare and eat during the festival is the Songpyeon (松片), a traditional Korean rice cake which contains a variety of ingredients such as sesame seeds, cinnamon, walnut, chestnut, jujube, honey, black beans, and mung beans.
While the Chinese eat mooncakes during their Autumn festival, Koreans eat songpyeon.
Another aspect of modern day Chuseok is gift-giving. Koreans will present presents not only to their families, but also to friends and business partners to show thanks and appreciation.
Dr Hak Ja Han Moon’s words on Chuseok – Preservation of the Natural Environment Is Our Duty as Heavenly Parent’s Children
During the Korean Chuseok holiday, the Korean people watch the full moon together, and revere Heaven. Siblings living far apart also come together and express their gratitude to Heaven and to their parents. It is a time when the entire neighbourhood comes together as well. If such a world, with no anxiety and worry, isn’t the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, what could be? I say it one more time: Heaven created this beautiful earth for us. Please remember that the day when all people, who until now have been undutiful as a result of the Fall, repent from a position where they attend Heaven, and begin to make effort to regain their original state, will be the day when true peace is realised and one family of humankind established.
By 2050, the population of 7.7 billion people in our world is expected to increase to 10 billion. Yet, the area of land where people can live is also gradually decreasing as a result of climate change. It is now time to put aside all greed, and, as original sons and daughters, restore this beautiful earth before it is too late. Hence, until the day Heavenly Parent can say, “How much have I waited for this day! Thank you so much!”, I sincerely ask you one more time to continue doing your best.
