Chuseok (추석) means "autumn evening" and is a big harvest festival and a three-day holiday in South Korea. It is always celebrated around the autumn equinox. Chuseok is the biggest traditional holiday celebrated in South Korea.
To celebrate the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and have a family feast full of Korean traditional food such as songpyeon, yakgwa, fruits like Asian pear and hallabong, and rice wines like sindoju, and dongdongju.
There are two major traditions related to Chuseok:
Charye, an at-home ancestor memorial services. It is also known as Jesa.
Seongmyo, where families visit the ancestral graves. This is usually accompanied by Beolcho, which is simply tidying the gravesites and removing weeds around them.
Another custom is to prepare the family's ancestors their favorite meals as an offering.
We hope that you all have a wonderful Chuseok! Although we may not all know our ancestry, we have family in each other and we hope that you can find time to celebrate today!