Full Moon Festival in South Korea : How India and South Korea revered Moon?
Agricultural countries are more concerned with Lunar calendar. Because it is very useful to know the exact day to farm. Korea was also one of Agricultural countries, we used Lunar calendar to 1896.
That`s why Most Korean traditional holidays are based on Lunar calendar. We celebrate full-moon of January, June, July, August, October. But now days we pick only 2 months as national holiday such as January and August. In 2017, the 15th of August in Lunar calendar is October 4th. We call this day“Chuseok(Chu Seok)”.
It is the Korean Thanksgiving day. Chuseok holidays last for three days. During the holidays, most Korean visit their hometowns or relatives to get together and share traditional food with the poor. It is a kind of Korean wisdom to develop social welfare and to look after our neighbor with firstfruits.
The most popular Chuseok dish is “Songpyeon(Song Pyeon)”. They are half-moon shaped rice cakes stuffed with sesame, beans, chestnuts etc.
Chuseok is also a time to give thanks to ancestors for the good harvest with filial piety and thank for what they had this year and wish for another good year. Early in the morning on Chuseok, family members perform an ancestor memorial service.
In the evening, we light torch to greet full-moon. If moonlight is red, we can expect that year will be dry. And, if moonlight is yellow, it will be a plenteous year.
By – Won Bae
