Ch'usok is believed to have originated during the ancient Shilla Kingdom, when a month-long weaving festival was held. For the contest, the king divided the city into teams and appointed princesses to lead them. The king announced the winneron the day of the eighth full moon and the losing team had to provide food, drink, and entertainment and a party involving the whole city followed. Ch'usok: Harvest Moon Festival

Chu'sok ("fall evening") is a Korean "Harvest Moon" (Han-gawi) festival set on the 15th day of the eighth lunar moon-- so it is on 24th of September. Early on this morning, Koreans perform an ancestor worship ritual with an offer of food made of new crops to thank their ancestors for giving them good fortune.

This festival is a harvest moon festival, but it's also a Thanksgiving day for the Korean people. This festival is one of the most important festivals in Korea. Ch'usok is celebrated by farmers and city dwellers, and everybody can have fun on this day. For the women these kinds of festivals are a very good day for them, because they can feel free, and not hide themselves when they want go out. For the men it was also very fun, but they had a lot of parties to make themselves happy.

In these festivals they also make special kind of foods which I can explain to you later. Family members come from all parts of the country to visit their ancestral homes. So they go to their graves and they bow and also give them very special food which they made for the festival so probably their ancestors will be very happy too.

During Ch'sok we wear traditional clothes hanbok because we want to remember our ancestors.

The people did games to have fun, and I'll tell you what it is. The women and the girls did sew-saw, swinging, Kang-gangsulle (a country circle dance) and other dances, under the bright moon in a large circle. See-saw is a game where 2 people jumps up and down. This is also found in a normal playground too but the Korean one is made out of wood (the traditional one.) so it's just a long thick sick, where girls step on and go up and down.

Special foods, games and dances, remembering our ancestors and wearing traditional clothes are all part of today's celebration of Ch'usok.

Kang-gangsulle is a thing which the girls do. They make a circle at night, and the full moon will shine up brightly down. They do this and say the word "Kanggangsulle" and there is a story about it. Once the Japanese attacked us, but our soldiers weren't enough to fight all the big amount of Japanese soldiers, so the captain thought an idea. He asked all the ladies in the town to get together and make a circle. Then he asked them to go up to the mountains under the bright full moon, and spin around. Then the Japanese saw us and thought we had so many soldiers so they ran away. The Koreans were so happy, so they named that 'Kanggangsulle' and did that every year.

The dance is normally a dance with masks on. They use them also for the plays. The men did sirum (Korean wrestling) which was a sport they played. Also they made a race saying that if they win, they will get a animal.

The rice cake, "Songphyun" is made of rice,
beans, sesame seeds, &: chestnuts.

FOOD EATEN DURING CH'USOK

The Koreans ate Songpyon (full-moon rice cakes stuffed with sesame, beans,chestnuts, or Chinese dates) Khaegangjong, YakGwa and yultanja (rice flour, chesnuts and honey) as a special food in Ch'usok. They of course ate rice and other foods in their normal days but ON Ch'usok They made lots of things special for their ancestors. Song Pyun is made out of rice flour and newly harvested grains and fruits. Khaegangjong is made out of sesame seeds.

Here is another student report on Ch'usok from the Kidproject Multicultural Calendar.