Chu-Seok Weekend

This week I only worked four days this week due to the Chu-seok holiday, which is the Korean Thanksgiving here. In celebration to our three day weekend, Thursday night I went out with a co-worker of mine and I had my first pizza here since I have moved here. It definately wasn't Papa Johns, but it wasn't too bad either! There were still potatoes on it which always comes as a suprise to me but ends up not tasting too shabby!

Friday, my co-workers set up a pot luck dinner where everyone had to bring in their own homemade dish to celebrate the Chu-seok holiday. I made my infamous chocolate chip cream cheese ball which ended up being the only dessert there. Thankfully I think everyone liked it! I was a fool when I signed up to bring a dessert because I forgot to rememeber that I don't have an oven in my apartment! I managed though! The dinner was amazing. Everything everyone brought was DELICIOUS. There was sheperds pie, pesto, kimchi chiggae (gotta have some korean in there too!), curry, chicken rissotto, salad, beef stew, and a soju punch! Haha, needless to say we all overstuffed ourselves. Unfortunately I couldn't stay long. My relatives were coming to pick me up in Ilsan to celebrate the Chu-Seok holiday with them for the weekend.

I have officially experienced my first traditional Chu-Seok. I also found out that it is not too much different than the American Thanksgiving with lots of food, family, and the infamous mid-day nap. Saturday is usually the official day of Chu-Seok. The day started at 6 AM!!!! Yes 6 AM! They woke me up to begin the day with the traditional ceremony. When I woke up they had already been up setting up the table into this nice spread basically for the ceremony. The ceremony basically consisted of all the men in the family standing in a row and each one had to take turns bowing and doing a little ritual with the korean wine infront of them. There were a few other things entailed such as pounding chopsticks in one bowl and sticking a new spoon in the rice everytime it was someone else's turn to bow. I couldn't make sense of it all but it was neat to watch. This is the ceremony spread, basically for show. Afterwards, they clear the table to set up the edible food. This is my grandfather on my mother's side.

This is all the men minus my grandfather. From left to right, My little cousin Sung-ha, my youngest uncle, my older uncle, and my other little cousin Sung-hu.

All the men in the process of bowing during the ceremony.

After the ceremony it was time to start the first meal of the day. There was definately no stuffing or turkey, but plenty of rice and rice cakes! Of course my whole family wanted to make sure I was full enough I wanted to about cry. During breakfast, they told me that it was tradition for me to do three saki shots which I thought was a little odd but the answer "no" was not an option as they shoved each one in my face. Mind you, this was before 8 AM in the morning. After breakfast, I was so tired and full and that drowsy feeling was taking over. I took a long nap and woke up to more family members and more food. I even managed to take another nap later on in the day! (hehe)

The moon is very bright and full on Chu-Seok. So as a korean tradition, Koreans walk outside of their homes to look at the moon and make a wish. One of my aunts took me outside to make my first Chu-Seok wish. It is basically a time to pray and say thank you for everything that you have and love.

My relatives took me back to Ilsan Saturday night after sending me home with LOTS of fruit and some noodles called chap-chay (one of my favorites). I really enjoyed the experience and am glad I got to experience a traditional Chu-Seok!