Chuseok

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Happy Chuseok everyone!

Chuseok (Hangawi) is a major harvest festival and a 3-day holiday in Korea. It's celebrated around the time of the Autumn Equinox, making it a similar comparison to the Chinese Mid-Autumn festival that goes on during this time as well.

Everyone goes back to their hometown to share a feast of Korean traditional food. For the past couple weeks, my students have been visiting the tombs of their ancestors to cut the grass, trim the plants, and clean the area around the tomb. In addition to offering food and drink to their ancestors, they also offer crops. Harvest crops, after all, are attributed to the blessing of ancestors.

A major dish that many of my students mentioned they would be making is something called "songpyeon". It is a crescent-shaped rice cake steamed upon a bed of pine needles.

In celebration of the upcoming Chuseok holiday, our Director gave each teacher a beautiful gift box filled with products by Dove. We received boxes of toothpaste, bars of soap, shampoo, bodywash, and hand lotion (my fav brand too!). It was a very sweet gesture and I completely appreciated it.

Basically, think of Chuseok as the "Korean Thanksgiving".

Thanksgiving...don't get me started on thinking of what I"ll be missing back at home: watching dad carve the roasted turkey, eating Jie's fresh garlic mash, and all of Momma's home-cooking. *sigh* You just can't find that kind of goodness here in Korea.

On the bright side, Chantelle and I will be heading to Busan in a couple days to celebrate Chuseok!

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Comments

[Telle]

Songpyeon
Did you try the songpyeon? It sure is interesting....that is all I can say for it!