If you have friends or classmates of Korean origin, take the time this week to wish them a happy Korean Thanksgiving.
Korean Thanksgiving Day, called Chu-Seok, is Sept. 22. (It is actually Aug. 15 in lunar calendar.) The date is different in every year, but it is always in September or in October. The day before Chu-Seok and the day after it are also holidays, so it is always a three-day holiday which shows us what a special celebration it is in Korea.
In Korea, traffic is really bad over this holiday because everyone is trying to get home to visit family. Chu-Seok is celebrated when people harvest crops and grains, so they eat plenty of foods during this holiday. The moon is very bright and is round since it is a harvest season of ripened crops.
Some people wear the Korean traditional outfit, called Han-Bok. The most important Chu-Seok tradition is making Song-Pyun to eat together. Song-Pyun is half-moon shaped rice cake with beans, honey, chestnut, or sesame it in.
“I still remember the taste of Song-Pyun that my grandmother made, and I really miss it,” said, Lee Park, a Korean UMass student.
Beside Song-Pyun, families gather to eat delicious foods and have a great time together.
On the Web
News-2-Know is a blog created by B.J. Roche’s Journalism 301 class. Every weekday, an author will write about a topic that is newsworthy and provide links on additional resources. To read the rest of the entries, click here.
