Korean Thanksgiving, or Chuseok, was Friday, September 13. I celebrated Chuseok on September 14, the first day of my hagwon class at the Lord Jesus Korean Church. I learned how to make tteok, which is a Korean rice cake. The type of tteok that we made was one that I have been eating ever since I was a child. It is called songpyeon, and it is finely ground rice made into dough and filled with sesame seeds, chestnuts, red beans, et cetera. It was fascinating to be able to make a childhood food from scratch. (Seriously, people made the dough beforehand completely from scratch!) First, we took the balls of dough and rolled them in our hands to soften them. We used the flour to coat the dough and make it less sticky. Next, we formed them into circles and put some of the filling inside. I believe the filling that we used was sesame seeds and brown sugar. Then, we folded the dough with the filling inside and shaped it into a ball. Finally, we pinched the top of the ball to form a decorative line. As we were making the tteok, we had several failures and successes; there was definitely a learning curve to making good-looking tteok. Apparently, if someone can make a particularly well-shaped tteok, they will have a beautiful daughter. Not only did I learn how to make tteok, but I found out about a fun idea related to it!
Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay for all of the festivities, but making the tteok was fun. If we had stayed longer, we would have actually been able to eat our tteok (it needed to be steamed), seen dancing, and, of course, eaten delicious food. The girls in the picture are wearing hanboks, which are traditional Korean attire. They are worn for formal occasions such as festivals, celebrations, and ceremonies.
I did some research on Chuseok and found some interesting things about it. Chuseok is one day, but it is celebrated for three days, including the day before and after. It is a time to be with family. Some people worship and pay respects to the spirits of their ancestors, and most families make songpyeon together. The purpose of Chuseok is to celebrate the harvest season. Another thing that I learned is that other countries also celebrate the harvest season with festivals. China’s Mid-Autumn Festival, Argentina’s Vendima (the National Grape Harvest Festival), and American Thanksgiving are examples of other countries’ holidays that celebrate the harvest season. They vary in regards to tradition, food, and festivities, but are all a time to come together and enjoy.
Something else that I remembered while reading about Chuseok is that the date is determined by the lunar calendar, which means that it on slightly different dates each year. Koreans consider autumn to be the best season of the year due to weather conditions that are ideal for the harvesting season. They celebrate the bountiful harvest and hope that next year’s season will be better than the last.
In the future, I hope to celebrate Chuseok with my family and in Korea!
Comments
Fantastic post, Eden!