Chuseok Festivities

And now, finally, we come to a description of what has kept me out of contact for so long: Chuseok. Chuseok is essentially a day in which Korean’s honor their ancestors by visiting their graves, presenting food, and bowing. This is mostly done for direct ancestor of the eldest patriarch (in most cases a great-grandfather), though in a Confucian hierarchy, other people besides this person may be honored. Koreans celebrate it on the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar, which fell on September 25th this year. This is also around the time of the rice harvest, and this fact combined with the fact that families consume a lot of food around this time lead Korean’s to translate this holiday as “Thanksgiving Day.” Unlike American Thanksgiving, though, Chuseok is apparently the biggest Korean holiday of the year, according to KBS Global (http://english.kbs.co.kr/news/zoom/1480466_11781.html).

Since the day’s surrounding the holiday are also national legal holidays, I did not have school on Monday through Wednesday. Instead, I spent time with the family which involved a lot of tomb visiting, eating, and sitting around watching television, though at one point, I did go fishing with a few of the children and one uncle. This largely involved the uncle using a small net trap to catch very small fish which we then released, while the children and I skipped stones. They were impressed with my abilities, though to be honest, I was surprised at them. How I got 11 skips out of one rock I’ll never know. I never used to be able to do even four!

One child in particular was a joy to meet. Her name is Nara, and she is actually a student at one of my fellow Entertaining Teachers from America’s schools, Stacey C. Unfortunately, she cannot take classes with Stacey because Stacey only teaches the lower grades and she is in the higher grades. At any rate, Nara (whose English name is Annika—some folks from Soul Purpose should appreciate that) speaks surprisingly good English for a student her age. She’s only 12 years old, Korean age, but already she can talk to me about literature. Granted, our conversation revolved mostly around Harry Potter, but her facility with the language was still impressive, and I’m sure she’ll probably do well in the Korean school system where knowledge of English language is the largest obstacle to advancement.

The first tomb visit, to the patriarch’s tomb, was fairly traditional from what I understand. There was food in front of the grassy mound that constituted the grave. The family members bowed in order of their rank from highest to lowest, getting on their knees, placing their hands in front of them horizontally so that they touched at the finger tips, and then lowering their foreheads to their hands. They performed this ritual twice. Then all (including me) helped eat the food given to the ancestors. (I am reminded of Peter’s and Paul’s discussions in Acts about whether certain foods are clean or unclean. I suppose I must take solace in the words of Christ that it is not what enters the body which is unclean, but that which comes out of it.) Then, my host father and one of his brother’s performed a smaller, but similar ritual for their great-grandmother, who apparently no one else was required to honor. It is also interesting that none of my host aunts nor my host mother accompanied us to the tomb. Also, only the eldest female daughter from each family came with us, while all of the sons were required to come.

After this, the grandmother gave out presents of socks to everyone, once again including me. They are my first pair of argyles, actually, and are quite comfortable. This is apparently a traditional Chuseok gift, or at least a common one, as many of my friends from the Program also received them.

Later on in the day we visited my host mother’s family tomb, this only with my nuclear host family, the others having gone back to Wonju. Her family tomb was quite a bit farther off the beaten path, and we had to walk through a couple of buckwheat fields to reach it. What was interesting here was that, though we presented food (a meager portion, but still an offering), instead of doing the traditional bowing, the family knelt and my youngest host sister prayed to Hananim, the Korean name for God. I think this was just a general prayer of thanks, like we would perform in America around our Thanksgiving. Whereas with the other service I had stood to the side and watched, I felt it would be appropriate for me to pray with the family now. And so, I listened politely until the prayer finished (as I do every Sunday for service), and said the “Amen” with them at the end.

Besides visiting family tombs, another Chuseok tradition is to offer a prayer to the moon. It is a tradition that if one offers a prayer to the full-moon, that prayer will come true. My family, however, just sat on the roof and looked up at it. Perhaps they offered a prayer, but if they did, it was silently. They did sing a traditional Chuseok song about the moon, and they were able to tell me about the image that Koreans see in the moon’s oceans. Whereas we see a face in the west, they see a rabbit at a ddeok (rice cake) churner with a frog hopping out from behind it. It’s a complex picture, and you have to use your imagination, but eventually you can see it. Kinda… (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/Man_In_The_Moon.jpeg/300px-Man_In_The_Moon.jpeg)

Overall, a good experience. If you’re lucky enough to visit Korea, I hope you’ll be lucky enough to have it. The homestay has really been a blessing in allowing me to participate in these usually more private family cultural events.