KOREA - CULTURE - HOLIDAYS

Ch'usok - Harvest Festival Day
Ch'usok or Harvest Festival Day is one of the great holidays of the year in Korean culture. On this day, feasts are prepared, families hold memorial services at ancestral gravesites, and full-moon viewing takes place in the evening. This Korean holiday is considered not only the most generous in spirit, but a day of thanksgiving for a good harvest. As on Lunar New Year's Day, families come home from all across the country to celebrate together.

Traditionally, new clothes were worn, but today people dress up in customary Korean dress, such as the han-bok. Ancestors are remembered with wine, newly harvested chestnuts, jujubes, persimmons, apples, pears, and songp'yon, half-moon-shaped rice cakes. New Year's Day activities and games are also popular during Ch'usok when the weather is good and, according to the Korean saying, "The sky is high and the horse is fat."

Hangul-nal - Korean Alphabet Day
"Hangul-nal" or Korean Alphabet Day is celebrated each year on October 9th. It is the celebration of the anniversary of the alphabet (han-gul) by the Choson Dynasty in 1448. The written alphabet was created by decree of the king.

Korean New Year - Solnal
In Korea, Solnal is the first day of the first month of the new year. While many Koreans celebrate the New Year on January 1st of the solar calendar, the lunar new year is still popular today. In many Korean communities, the New Year is celebrated twice. The Lunar New Year starts on January 29 in 2006. According to the Asian Zodiac, 2006 is the Year of the Dog.

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