Chuseok - from old Korean for ‘great middle’ but simplified to ‘Korean Thanksgiving’ for us foreigners - is coming up. Officially, Chuseok falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month (September 14 for everyone else), and the legal holiday extends to the day before and the day after. Since the 14th falls on a Sunday and the day before is a Saturday, this wonderful holiday is reduced to little more than a three-day weekend for most parties concerned. It’s considered one of the two major holidays by Koreans (the Lunar New Year being the other).

While Koreans celebrate Chuseok by returning home and performing ancestor worship or playing traditional games, they may also visit the tombs of their immediate ancestors to trim plants and clean the area around the tomb. Since harvest crops are attributed to the blessing of ancestors, there’s some traditional belief to these practices. Outside of the typical Chuseok festivities, there is a large population of non-Koreans that... well... we’re just not sure what’s going on or what exactly we’re supposed to do. If there are any Korean ancestors in your past you can honor them on some level... for the other 99.9998% of us Westerners, well...

One interesting shopping note: the stores are full of what could be described as ‘themed gift boxes’ - anything from fruit to ginseng to liquor to Spam may make up these gift boxes. With the Chuseok season nearing, my best guess is that they’re given to the family that the Seoulites are traveling to see.

On the positive side, most Koreans will be leaving Seoul in favor of wherever their families happen to be. This means most everything around Seoul will be dead or much less busy compared to the norm. If there’s anywhere you’ve been putting off visiting because of the crowds, this weekend may well be the time. If you’re looking to travel outside of the city, be prepared to be fighting an especially large crowd looking to get home (or get back to Seoul, depending on your timing).

So what should you do if you’re a foreigner? Copied from korea.net:

The National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts gives you “Dalmajigut,” the Korean dance of welcoming the harvest time of the year under the big, full moon next Sunday on Sept. 14. The performance will take place at the outdoor theater of Byeolmajiteo at 7 p.m. In the audience participation event, audience members will be invited to sample “sindo” wine, made of new grain and “songpyeon” a half-moon shaped rice cake filled with sesame seeds and other sweet pastes. Other participatory events prepared for the visitors include tuho, an arrow-throwing contest, eunggyeongdo nori, a kind of board game played during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) and straw craft. I may try to check this event out, although most of the information I’ve found thus far has yet to indicate a place I could find on a map...

In the end, I suspect most foreigners will enjoy their three (or more) day weekend, travel if they already have plans or relax if they don’t.