Ju-Un Lee
Writing 2. Section A
November 26, 97
Every year on August 15th of the lunar calendar Korea has really heavy traffic jams; for example, ordinarily it takes 5 or 6 hours from Seoul to Kyoung -Ju, but at this time it takes 15 or 17 hours. The reason why Korea has heavy traffic jam is that most people visit their hometowns on the holiday of Chu-Suk.
Why do most people visit their hometowns on Chu-Suk? Because Chu-Suk is one of the biggest holidays in Korea. Then what is Chu-Suk? Chu-Suk is like a thanksgiving day. During Chu-Suk, Korean families are gethering together and give thanks to ancestors for the harvest, therfore we do Je-Sa (ancestral rites). Let's explore what we do for the three days of Chu-Suk.
We rest 3 days for Chu-Suk. On the first day , Korean people prepare lots of food to do the Je-Sa. Usually most Korean people prepare rice, soup, fish, meat, some kind of fruit ( apples, pears, oranges, chestnuts, persimmons etc.), and wild greens ( brake, bean sprouts, spinach, etc.). We wear traditional clothes because we want to remember our ancestors. Those are called "Han - Bok". In the case of men, they wear pants and a jacket. We call the pants "Baji-jegori" and call the jacket " Jegori". For women, they wear a skirt and a jacket. We call the skirt "Chima- jegori", and jacket has the same name as the men's. Han-Bok has lots of colors such as red, green, yellow, rainbow, white, pink. In the case of shape, men's Jegori are consisted of a vest, a jacket. The bottom of the sleeve of the jacket is curved. For Baji-Jegori (pants),there are strings at the bottom that are for tieing around the ankels. For women, the Chima-Jegori which is skirt gets wider as going down to bottom and Jegori which is top is very short.
On the second day, in the morning of Chu-Suk, we do Je-Sa. Je-Sa? This is a kind of rite that give thanks to ancestors and reminds them that we think about them. We put lots of food which we prepared on the first day on a dining table; and then, we curtsy(bow) to our ancestors. During this rite we have to have reverence of mind because we think that our ancestors visit at this time in our homes, and they look at everything, our actions and our faces, even our minds. After the Je-Sa we eat food and enjoy ourselves. Usually we talk about our ordinary lives and the situation of working with each other ,or visit some famous place to go sightseeing.
On the third day, the end of Chu-Suk, most people go back to their homes , so everybody feels emptiness. However, they are glad that they enjoyed with their families and gave thanks to their ancestors.
In short, Chu-Suk is the very big holiday to meet family and give thanks to ancestors. In addition, Korean people enjoy the Chu-Suk and every year we wait for Chu-Suk, even though we experience traffic jams. Because, Chu-Suk makes all families to be one.