Fifth Cultural Post: Identify a topic for your culture project and your learning goals for your topic.
For this culture project, I’ll talk about the Korean Holiday called Chuseok. Chuseok literally means “Autumn’s eve” and is a harvest festival. This holiday is celebrated in both North and South Korea for three days on the 15h day of the lunar calendar’s 8th month. This date falls in alignment with a full moon. During this time, Koreans go back to their hometowns and hold celebratory feasts with their family.
Interestingly, the origins of this holiday are debated. Some believe that the holiday’s original purpose was to present offerings from the new harvest to ancesetors or local gods. Another theory is that Chuseok commemorates the day that the Kingdom of Silla won an important battle. Some speculate that Chuseok was the celebration for a winning team at the end of Gabea, a month-long weaving competition. Regardless of its unknown origins, Chuseok is a major holiday comparable to American Thanksgiving in terms of its scale.
One of my learning goals is to become more knowledgeable about Korean culture, including major holidays. Through this culture project, I intend to go more in depth about the traditional customs and foods associated with Chuseok, and I will learn some of the specialized vocabulary that goes hand in hand with this holiday.
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