What does Chuseok mean to you?

2013-09-17 15:58

What does Chuseok mean to you?

Jeffrey Miller
This week, Koreans will be celebrating one of their most important and venerated holidays, Chuseok. By the time you are reading this Op-Ed piece, nearly a third of South Korea’s population will either be on their way or getting ready to head to their hometown for ancestral rites and family rituals. However, if you are a foreigner in Korea (and not married to a Korean) the extended holiday has a different meaning in the way that it is celebrated. Indeed, celebrating the holiday has any number of possibilities, from traveling around Korea or overseas (if you were lucky enough to find a ticket) to hunkering down in one’s dwelling and catching up on sleep, movies or work. Fortunately, the country doesn’t “close down” like it used to in the past when you had to stock up on food and videos to get through the holiday. These days there’s always some place open whether it’s a coffee shop or convenience store.If you live in Seoul, it’s a lot easier to get around by taxi or bus. When I lived in Seoul, I always looked forward to holidays like Chuseok and Sollal because it was one of those rare occasions when you could take a taxi across town without getting stuck in traffic because so many people had left the city. However, living in Daejeon since 2007, during these holidays I feel like the population doubles with so many people traveling back home.
As for me, the holiday has always been near and dear to me in all the years I have lived and worked in Korea for a variety of reasons _ not for anything Korean, though. Instead, for how the holiday reminds me of Thanksgiving in the United States.
I suppose a lot has to do with how Chuseok has often been referred to as the Korean Thanksgiving, owing to the holiday’s association with America’s Thanksgiving (no doubt given the large presence of American troops on the peninsula since the end of the Korean War) when a convenient and translatable term was needed. Although there are some similarities between Korean Chuseok and America’s Thanksgiving (as well as Canadian Thanksgiving ― don’t want to offend my Canadian friends) such as traveling home and gorging oneself with food, the two holidays are just as different as they are the same, but the traditions each holiday has to offer is what makes them special and endearing in each other’s culture.
Any non-American with some knowledge of the holiday knows that America’s Thanksgiving can be traced back to early America and the religious celebration of giving thanks and prayers after the harvest, though its roots can also be traced back to celebrations in England. This notion of giving thanks for a bountiful harvest and for seeing one through another year has always been the basis for our celebration of the holiday in America. Although it shouldn’t take a holiday to be thankful for one’s blessings, it is what we most associate with the holiday, besides all the food, parades, and football.
For as long as I have lived in South Korea and celebrated Chuseok indirectly, what has always impressed me most about the holiday has been the ancestral rites commonly associated with the holiday. That’s what I have found to be the most endearing manifestation of the holiday ― to pay one’s respects to one’s ancestors. And in the grand scheme of things, when you think about it, paying these respects is truly giving thanks to one’s ancestors.
(When I’ve visited Korean friends over the years and watched them prepare for these rituals, I sometimes wished we had something similar back in the States. Though we visit the graves of our family members, place some flowers on the grave and spend a few moments remembering them before we hurry off, it’s not the same.)
If Koreans were to borrow one of our Thanksgiving customs, and take time out during the celebrations this Chuseok holiday to give thanks and count one’s blessings, I wonder what many people would be thankful for? I am sure there would be many who would be thankful just for getting through another year. Perhaps many would be thankful for their health and success in work and school. Perhaps many would simply be thankful for getting to their hometowns safe and sound. Maybe some, including myself, would be thankful that cooler minds prevailed earlier this year when North Korea ratcheted up tensions on the peninsula.
Similarities and differences aside, what I like most about Chuseok is that it will always remind me of my first year in Korea when I first embraced and immersed myself in Korean culture. It was right around that time that I was nearing my first year in Korea and feeling a little homesick, especially when the weather here started getting cooler and reminded me of weather back in America’s Midwest. While I might have scratched my head and wondered why someone would give a Spam gift set as a present, the first time I heard someone try to explain to me that Chuseok was like Thanksgiving in my country, it made me smile and warmed my heart.
Jeffrey Miller, who is currently a senior lecturer at the SolBridge International School of Business in Daejeon, is the author of seven books, including “Waking Up in the Land of the Morning Calm” and the soon to be published, “When A Hard Rain Falls.” Contact him at sparksjam@gmail.com