Chuseok Traditions

Chuseok falls on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month and is the largest holiday in the Korean year - three days officially, more in practice. Families travel to the paternal home town, which produces the annual migration that fills every motorway and books out every train weeks in advance. The morning of the day itself is charye, a rite at which food is set out for ancestors in a prescribed arrangement and bows are made; afterwards families visit graves for beolcho, clearing the grass. The food that defines it is songpyeon, half-moon rice cakes filled with sesame, chestnut or bean and steamed over pine needles, made together the night before. Folk games, ssireum wrestling and ganggangsullae belong to the same festival. For a visitor the practical facts matter most: many shops, museums and restaurants close, transport is saturated, and palaces often open free.

What you actually see

• The migration - the country moving to its home towns.
• Charye and beolcho - the ancestral rite and the grave-clearing.
• Songpyeon - pine-steamed rice cakes made the night before.
• The folk games - wrestling and circle dancing at festivals.

When to go

The eighth lunar month, usually September or early October - the date moves each year. Book transport and rooms weeks ahead, or avoid travelling during the holiday altogether.

Honest expectations

The core of Chuseok is private and family-based; there is little for an outsider to attend. Much of the country closes. Trains and buses sell out and roads are gridlocked. Palaces and some museums opening free is the main upside for visitors.

Nearby

Folk villages and palaces run Chuseok programmes; Gangneung, Andong and Jeonju stage the largest public ones.