Chuseok Celebrations

A cultural phenomenon encompassing the seasonal customs, greeting practices, and modern changes that unfold around Chuseok, Korea's largest holiday.

Chuseok Celebrations

Overview

Chuseok Celebrations (Korean: 추석맞이) is a term referring to the full range of seasonal customs, greeting practices, and social and cultural preparations—such as prices, transportation, and gifts—that Koreans carry out around Chuseok (Korean: 추석), the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. Also called Hangawi or Jungchujeol, Chuseok is one of Korea's two major holidays along with Seollal (Korean: 설날). Its core practices are holding ancestral rites (charye), visiting ancestral graves, and sharing food with family and relatives. Today, "Chuseok Celebrations" has expanded into a concept encompassing not only traditional rituals but also modern practices such as homecoming and return travel, purchasing gift sets, trimming graves, and making use of substitute holidays.

Main Content

Origins and Seasonal Significance

The most widely known theory is that Chuseok originated from Silla's Gabae (Korean: 가배). During Goryeo, it became a state holiday on which the king bestowed alcohol and food on his subjects. In the Joseon period, customs such as charye, grave visits, ganggangsullae, ssireum, and tug-of-war were recorded in works such as Dongguk Sesigi (Korean: 동국세시기). The full moon of the 8th lunar month was the time to harvest the year's crops, giving rise to the proverb, "Don't ask for more or less; may every day be like Hangawi."

Charye and Grave Visits

On Chuseok morning, the ancestral rite table is set with new grain and new fruit. Unlike Seollal, Chuseok charye includes songpyeon, taro soup, and steamed chicken, and uses seasonal fruits such as chestnuts, jujubes, and persimmons. After the rite, the family visits graves together to trim them and pay respects. In recent years, with changes in funeral and burial culture such as charnel houses and tree burial, the ways of visiting ancestral graves have also diversified.

Food and Games

The representative food is songpyeon, traditionally made in a half-moon shape, lined with pine needles, and steamed. Other dishes include taro soup, braised short ribs, jeon, and baesuk (Korean: 배숙). Games such as ganggangsullae, ssireum, gama ssaum (Korean: 가마싸움), sonori-gut (Korean: 소놀이굿), and tug-of-war have been passed down by region; ganggangsullae and ssireum continue today in the form of competitions.

Homecoming and Transportation

The largest social phenomenon of Chuseok celebrations is the movement of people returning to their hometowns and then back home. On the day before and the day of the holiday, highway congestion is so severe that people say "it takes 10 hours from Seoul to Busan." Each year, the government implements special transportation measures, including extra temporary trains and express buses, toll discounts, and operation of shoulder lanes.

Gifts and Table Settings

Chuseok gift sets are a key keyword of the holiday economy. Traditionally, Korean beef, dried yellow corvina, fruit, and red ginseng were popular, but recently the range has diversified to include health functional foods, home appliances, gift certificates, and even pet products. The distribution industry begins taking preorders for gift sets one to two months before Chuseok and adds logistics personnel to prepare for the surge in deliveries.

Latest Trends

The trend of Chuseok celebrations in 2024–2025 can be summarized as "simplification" and "personalization." A culture of "escaping the holiday"—setting a simpler charye table, skipping charye altogether, or choosing travel and rest—has become pronounced. Starting in 2024, the government applied substitute holidays to the Chuseok break, making possible a holiday of up to five to six days; as a result, demand for overseas travel and domestic accommodation surged at the same time. In 2025, amid aging and the increase in single-person households, small-package gift sets and easy meal kits targeting "honchujok" (Korean: 혼추족; people spending Chuseok alone) spread. In addition, non-face-to-face holiday culture such as online grave visits, cyber charye, and mobile gift certificates took hold, and local governments are operating Chuseok celebration programs linked to regional festivals. In terms of prices, fluctuations in fruit prices caused by abnormal climate emerged as the biggest variable in Chuseok grocery prices.