There are 314 pages on Korea.net, the nation's official multilingual Web site, that contain both the words "Chuseok" and "Thanksgiving" in the results from a quick search of the site.
Chuseok, a harvest holiday with origins dating to the Three Kingdoms Period of Korea, is compared to the North American tradition in English-language media throughout the country, as well as between friends and families.
The use of the term "Korean Thanksgiving" has been impressed on most foreigners and natives, but there are still many who do now know the full meaning or origins behind the holiday.
The article says the comparison comes from Korea's close ties to the US and its culture over the past two generations.
The Western influences in South Korea could be part of the reason for the widely-used analogy, said an employee at the Korean Culture and Information Service (KOIS), the government branch that manages Korea.net.
"Bear in mind that most of the English that Koreans choose to use is heavily American-influenced," he said, wishing to remain anonymous.
"Obviously, it's a simplification, every comparison is some sort of a simplification, but the term 'Thanksgiving' is neither accurate nor inaccurate.
"The (KOIS) also refers to (Chuseok) as a harvest festival, or a full moon festival. Generally, any article we write about it will contain all of those concepts at some point."
Both Thanksgiving and Chuseok are autumn harvest festivals, but it's kind of a disservice to both by calling one "Korean Thanksgiving." As with all these Korea's _________, the comparison makes the Korean one look cheap. But Chuseok is a fine holiday, and give the intelligence of non-Koreans enough credit by trying to show what it actually is, rather than making a quick comparison that isn't really accurate.
Forget about searching Korea.net, the Korea Times site has plenty of "Korean Thanksgiving" stuff, 723 to be exact, including an illustrated guide to visiting the ancestors' graves.
17 comments:
I like "Harvest Moon Festival" - always have.
It's always annoyed me when Koreans tell me Chusok is Korean thanksgiving. It's not Thanksgiving and the only similarity is the fall harvest.
If they call it a festival, doesn't that mean it'll be cancelled due to Swine Flu?
Harvest Festival or Harvest Moon Festival does it for me. Thanksgiving is associated with things that are very distant from Chuseok, there's no need to use that vocabulary when there are other appropriate terms.
Is that illustrated guide to visiting the ancestors' graves for real? Because it gave me a great idea for a new book: Korea for Dummies.
Think of the possibilities.
I think Chuseok and Turkey Day are pretty similar in some regards. Enough so that when I need a quick way to explain it to my friends back home I use the term.
But I add to that description a little by saying that it's more like a combination of Thanksgiving and El Dia de los Meurtos without the skulls.
The whole idea is to honor the ancestors and celebrate the harvest which brings life. The Korean people are "thankful" for their ancestors and for food/family/days off work/unending traffic in and out of Seoul/the sweet sweet beach in Pusan.
Clearly this description is just as facile as any other, but it works in my mind.
To me, it is clearly a harvest festival timed by the lunar calender. Harvest moon festival sums it up.
Thanksgiving? Give me a break. Korea should stop rubbing off against America.
Not a big deal, in my mind. I prefer "Chuseok", but I think "Korean Thanksgiving" is handy when telling the folks back home about it.
Daniel, that makes Korea sound like a stray cat in heat. And it's funny.
I don't get it. Thanksgiving is a harvest festival. Chuseok is a harvest festival.
According to wiki:
Many scholars also believe Chuseok may originate from ancient shamanistic celebrations of the harvest moon.[3] New harvests are offered to local deities and ancestors, which means Chuseok may have originated as a worship ritual.[4]
The KT article claims the holiday's origins are in a legend and not in celebrating the harvest moon? But that's like saying Christmas is a holiday in honor of the birth of a demi god sent by a bronze aged skygod. We have the holiday and we then latter attach legends to the holiday.
One has to ask -- what would a traditional American or Canadian family do on their "harvest festival"? What would a traditional Korean family do on their "harvest festival"?
My Korean language instructor heard so many people describe Chuseok as "Korean Thanksgiving" that she assumed that Americans and Canadians perform jesa (ancestral worship ceremonies) and visited their ancestors' graves on Thanksgiving. After all, the two days are "pretty much the same", right?
I agree with Puffin Watch. At least in the US the stories I learned as a child made Thanksgiving out to be commemorating when the first Europeans came to live in New England. Their first harvest was poor, so the Native Americans helped them out.
(Subsequent generations expressed their gratitude by stealing every bit of real estate they could get their hands on, after giving charitable gifts of smallpox-laden blankets to the destitute among them after having killed off most of their bison.)
What's wrong with "Full Moon Festival?" Well, at first glance, it could be confused with those rave parties they were having in Koh Samui ... are they still doing that?
As for "Korean Mid-Autumn Festival," way too many syllables, 9 by my count. And name me one other holiday that uses a hyphen. I can't think of any.
The only people calling it Korean Thanksgiving are those wishing to explain it quickly and easily to foreigners. For most of the foreigners who talk about it, it's just time off from work, so it would be difficult to explain if they tried.
In the west, it's not a Harvest Festival anymore, anyway. It's just an excuse for families to gather in one place. The real meaning behind it is that everyone does it, and as families disperse, it's just one of a couple of moments in the year where they can be in one place physically. That's not a small thing.
Just noticed this from the article:
"According to legend, Chuseok began as a result of a weaving competition held between two princesses in the Silla dynasty. The goal was to see which team could weave the most. The fierce competition lasted for about a month, ending on the 15th day of the 8th month on the lunar calendar during the full moon. As punishment, the losing team had to prepare a bountiful feast for the victors."
Aside from the bountiful feast, where's the connection top a harvest festival?
I think Chuseok is closer to a ritual of gratitude than this story implies. There is an "ancestor table" and the men poor a glass of soju of the deceased who couldn't be here due to circumstances. Children bow and receive money from older people and everyone touches forehead to the carpet to honor the oldest family members.
That's more of a giving of thanks than happens back in the US. Most people just fall into a tryptofan coma on the couch in front of a football game after eating a lot of turkey.
The Bobster --
Children bowing to receive money and everyone touching their head to the floor to honor the oldest family members takes place on Lunar New Year, not Chuseok.
And I don't understand your complaint about the length and the hyphen. The Mid-Autumn Festival is also celebrated in Chinese cultures but you felt the need to distinguish the Korean version as unique? In that case the North American holidays should really be called "Canadian Thanksgiving" and "American Thanksgiving" (both 7 syllables long) -- I mean, those two don't even take place in the same month.
If length is an issue for you, what's your opinion on "Martin Luther King, Jr. Day"? That one's 9 syllables long and includes both a comma (if you're going to complain about a hyphen you might as well complain about a comma, too) and an abbreviation. South Africa has Day of Reconciliation (8 syllables) -- is that one too long?
I'd also advise against moving to Argentina, what with "Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice", "Anniversary of the First Independent Government in Buenos Aires", and "Anniversary of the death of General José de San Martín". Quite the mouthfuls! ;)
I kind of like "Full Moon Festival," personally, or even "Autumn Moon Festival." Of course, any name you pick will require some explaining, but I just think Korean Thanksgiving already gets you pretty far off course.
I've chosen this one for the next Joongang Ilbo piece (as you saw for my request for comments on Facebook), so I appreciate the responses. The Bobster makes good points, because at least in the US we've gone pretty far astray from the giving thanks part. Still, if it's not my favorite holiday, it's in my top two.
Acorn : My wife's family does the same observances at each of Sollal or Chuseok. Maybe they are mistaken ...
Both are just an excuse for family members to gather, though it's only one side of the family, because my wife's sisters have to go to their husbands parents' house. Aside from the patriarchal nature of it,this is pretty much the way we treat Thanksgiving and Christmas in the US.
The Bobster --
My statement was based on the following:
1. I have two books that offer an in-depth look at Korea's seasonal customs and neither of them mentions sebae (bowing and getting money) for Chuseok. This despite including 'minor' details like when scarecrows should be made, old customs from the Joseon dynasty that are no longer observed, etc. If sebae were common on Chuseok that would seem to be a very major oversight in both works.
2. As someone with a degree in anthropology I often ask friends and coworkers about cultural aspects. I've asked several people from northern Gyeonggi-do (where I live and work) about sebae, Chuseok, and Seollal, with everyone mentioning or confirming that it's only done for Seollal. This has also been upheld after conversations with friends from/in Incheon, Daegu and Masan. The families I know from Jeolla are Christian and don't do anything for Chuseok.
3. Some of my students have performed sebae for me on Seollal -- but never on Chuseok. In fact, after the first time it happened - and I gave them money - a few other students talked about how they were looking forward to the next Seollal because they were hoping to get money. Why not Chuseok, since that was only half a year away?
Similarly, the week before Chuseok we covered holidays in one of my classes and the majority of the class listed Seollal as their favorite holiday. Their reason? That's the holiday where they get money. I mentioned playing games (yutnori) and eating on Chuseok but they said that isn't as good as getting money on Seollal. In this class, too, the students made remarks about performing sebae for me on Seollal. This conversation took place about four days prior to Chuseok, so if the standard is to bow and give out money I have to wonder why none of my students made any comment about it.
While I don't mean to pry into your private life, I would be interested in hearing where your wife's family is from and what other holidays they celebrate throughout the year. Maybe her family introduced sebae during Chuseok for a special reason (an extra level of 孝, filial piety, to compensate for some hardship that took place in the past?) and made it a custom after that.
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