South Korea’s three-day harvest festival, observed on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, is called Chuseok.
Chuseok is one of South Korea’s major traditional holidays, alongside Seollal, the Lunar New Year. Families commonly travel to their ancestral hometowns, prepare special foods, and perform charye, an ancestral memorial ceremony. A visit to family graves, known as seongmyo, is another established custom.
Songpyeon, a crescent-shaped rice cake filled with ingredients such as sesame, beans, or chestnuts, is strongly associated with Chuseok. The holiday is often described as a harvest celebration because it coincides with the autumn harvest and traditionally gives families an opportunity to share newly gathered foods.
Chuseok is sometimes translated as “Korean Thanksgiving,” but it is not simply a Korean version of the North American holiday. Its rituals, lunar date, ancestor observances, and food traditions belong to Korea’s own seasonal and family calendar.