Games, Food, Performance and beyond...
Chuseok is more than just a Moon Festival
In today's culture, Chuseok has transformed into mini towns in everyone's own homes. Chuseok is celebrated for 3 days however to give working people time to travel to and fro, they are usually celebrated through the week.
Chuseok holds such deep meaning more than just a dinner with family or neighbors, it is a culmination of their culture. It has food which brings together all koreans from all places during this time. It was one of the first performances openly allowed for women to perform, one that I will introduce called Ganggangsullae.
Foods like "Jeon" and "Dduk" are displayed in colorful arrangement. Jeon is a pancake filled with all the harvest of that season, and Dduk is a rice cake, and you will see many kinds of it with colors reflecting the vegetables and grains of the season.
Games like Seesaw, Yut fill the town with laughter. It is truly a time of blessing and of thanksgiving for people in Korea.
Folk Groups and it's Traditions...
Impact of Folk Group and it's traditions cannot be numbered as the significance varies from person to person. From my research I have found that Folk Groups help people identify and feel a sense of belonging.
They can share this sense of togetherness through foods, performances, stories. They share good and the bad. When disaster hits, they are not left alone, but they are comforted by their groups, they find strength in them and build communities around.
The reason why this tradition of Chuseok was captivating was that everyone of all ages and backgrounds would gather together during this time of celebration, putting aside their differences to remember their humble and modest beginnings, being thankful is one thing, but to bring all the goodness of a celebration, food, games, performances, and have meaning behind everything, even the kinds of foods they served, or how about the Ganggangsullae performance.
That performance really captured my attention, the time and effort they put into this while they would work in the fields to coordinate all this for their celebration. It's like a parent who celebrate's their child's birthday, they do all the work of raising this child, then plans and sets up the gathering, invite people, bring food, performances all to celebrate this one child. This is in a larger scale, the whole community is brought together, the whole country is, and I wanted to highlight this dance because of the stories and their hardships and the technique and dedication that went into this performance on top of all the work that they did during the harvest months.
These women not only were the glue to the celebration, but the highlight of the event. Ganggangsullae, later was recognized as a Korean cultural dance/performance, allowing women to perform this outside of their Chuseok festival.
As the generations pass, so will the traditions, they will shift and mold to reflect the community, however the essence and the core of the tradition will remain.