Chuseok

Traditional Chuseok feast set-up

Chuseok (pronounced chew sock) is the celebration of Korean Thanksgiving. Basically a four day weekend, although it's Mon/Tues off rather than Thurs./Fri, which I've always been a big fan of, probably due in large part to Wed before Thanksgiving is always the busiest bar night of the year, which means great money for the bartenders!!

Another look at a Chuseok set-up, just not as fancy

Regardless of the backwards approach to four day weekends, Koreans are certainly good about making the most of their time off, not to mention, teachers are usually given a few gifts from not only the directors or the schools but also from a few of the students or their parents. Most are simple, functional items the teacher could make good use of on a daily basis, i.e. toiletry gift sets, juice gift sets, seaweed gift sets, etc. One of my directors gave me an intriguing black rice vinegar drink set made up of three bottles of mixed berry juice and a fourth bottle of honey flavored juice. He knows I like pomegranate and berry juices so he thought I might like this as well. He warned, me, however, not to drink it straight and that I should dilute it w/about 50% water or milk. After a few more questions, I was able to surmise that it wasn't your basic fruit juice but rather a kind of rice vinegar wine and apparently pretty potent. I have yet to bust into the liquid goodness as I've been busy making my way via train and bus around the country on my days off (weekends).

I got one bottle of the honey & three of the berry (both on the far left)

As Chuseok happens around the time of the fall harvest, it offers Koreans the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of their labor (or at least used to when it was still a highly agrarian based country). The real Chuseok joy, however, comes from the opportunity to do a couple things.

First, families gather together at the house of the eldest male relative, usually the grandfather but if they have passed on, then it's the responsibility of the eldest son to open his home (and his wallet) for the occasion. There is a plethora of food options, mostly fruits, vegetables, fish, bulgolgi (meat) & traditional dishes like rice, kimchi, dried squid or octopus & songpyeon (a very chewy/rubbery crescent shaped rice cakes steamed on pine needles).

Songpyeon - rice cakes

Secondly, the day is spent catching up w/family on recent happenings, stuffing themselves w/food & most importantly, consuming large amounts of beer, alcohol & rice liquors....have I mentioned drinking seems to be a favorite past-time of most Koreans? These all day benders lead to much laughter, revelry & reflection regarding the year that's been as well as an offering of thanks to the relatives who've come before them and struggled to provide a better life here on the peninsula.

Finally, it's a big day, financially for the kids, as each child receives money from the adult males in the family. To my understanding, most of the money is usually put into the child's bank account to be spent on something later, most likely education/college. It was pointed out to me the benefit of having multiple kids is big on days like this as they can rake in some pretty good loot. I had a few students tell me they made b/w 300,000 - 500,000 won (about $300 - 500). Although, like both my directors pointed out, they tend to have to fork over quite a bit of cash, yet they each only have one child, so they don't have near the haul at the end of the day as their counterparts. Plus, they're both the eldest men in their families, which means spending about another 200,000 - 300,000 won on food & drink for the day. I guess there are times when it's good to be the middle or youngest boy in the brood, huh?

Kids seem to be the big winners, at least financially, during Chuseok

In case you'd like to further educate yourself on Korean Thanksgiving - Wiki Chuseok Link

Chuseok for me, however, didn't consist of a family bender or gorging myself on an accumulated cornucopia of the local harvest. Rather, I opted to make my way to the highest point on the southern side of the peninsula. My plan was to delve into a few days of hiking and pseudo-camping in Seoraksan National Park but getting there is a little more tricky than the ease of hopping a train. I had to catch a bus & ride for five relatively uncomfortable and cramped hours to the northeast part of the country. The forecast called for cool, cloudy fall weather w/about a 30% chance of showers on Sunday. Since the morning bus was already filled up when I got to the bus terminal Saturday morning, I found myself relegated to the afternoon trip & arriving in Sokcho fairly late on Saturday night. This still would have given me a couple good days of hiking & maybe some nature based transcendental enlightenment!

Fall leaves of Seoraksan National Park

After it was all said & done, though, my holiday adventure was pretty much a bust. It consisted of about $100 in travel expenses, 13+ hours on buses, a couple nights 'camped out' under a stretched awning covering a small stage in a park along the East sea coast in the small fishing village of Sokcho. A steady stream (downpour at times) of falling rain over about a 60 hour span and a few hours waiting for 'the bus that never arrives' at various city bus stops in Sokcho (for future travelers, it's lucky bus #7) to take me the 15 - 20 minutes up into the national park to at least see what trouble I could get myself into.

I stayed relatively drive throughout the endeavor but remained fairly frustrated at the wasted opportunity to get anything accomplished on the hiking side of things.

Hiking made easy, Korean style

Needless to say, I never made it into the National Park. I never had the opportunity to do any hiking, at least not in the traditional, natural sense, as I don't consider hiking/slopping around Sokcho for a couple days in the urban flatland while doing my best to avoid as much of the constant rain as possible, much of an the experience I had in mind. Thus, it appears, my misty mountain hopping will have to wait a few more days/weeks/months but regardless, I'm still looking forward to the adventure & sights of Seoraksan....even if it isn't until after the snow has started to fly.

Misty Mountain Hop?

**All photos have been lifted from various sites around the web, so I can't take credit for any of them.