Chuseok

Wikipedia defines 'Chuseok' as the following: Originally known as Hangawee (한가위) (from archaic Korean for "great middle"), is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. Like many other harvest festivals, notably the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, it is held around the Autumn Equinox. As a celebration of the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and share a feast of Korean traditional food.


For us, this meant a gift from our school (24 cans of tuna,) a day off of work, a bottle of wine, and a potluck with all of the foreigners in our area! In short, tons of fun.


From what I can gather, Chuseok is a great deal like Thanksgiving at home, except that it holds a great deal more emphasis, some considering it bigger than Christmas in this culture. I spoke with one of my colleagues and she said that everyone typically goes to the first born sons home, or the grandparents house, depending on the family. The women spend the better part of Friday cooking, and then the majority of the day on Saturday cooking and preparing as well. When I asked what the men are doing while all of this is going on? She didn't have much of an answer. At home, I am certain they would be on the couch watching football ...here, not so sure.


The actual holiday is on the Saturday and the feast is on the Saturday night. (Which explains why the PC Bong - the Computer lab that we go to) is absolutely busting at the seams with children right now ...their moms probably wanted them out of their hair while they prepared. I can't even imagine how much food they have after over 10 hours of cooking, with all of the women in the family contributing! Also to note is that a married couple always goes to the mens family dinner (don't worry mom - I reminded Wayne that we are neither traditional or Korean.) Their feist consists of traditional dishes and they give thanks to their elders.


What did we do? Well ...since this town is kinda like a ghost town right now, with pretty much nothing open except for the odd restaurant and the 7/11 (yes we have a 7/11!) we gathered all of the white misfits in the town and set about cooking half-assed meals in our barely functioning kitches!

What we ended up with was yummy though! As you will see (to the left), Wayne & I (and I am good to admit that it was 90% Wayne) cooked 'traditional' shephards pie with pork rather than beef! Also a part of the dining table (a blanket on the grass) was grilled cheese, an apple/chocolate concoction that was fabulous, pasta salad and hot dogs! Can't go wrong ...when Canada meets the United States, this is what we come up with.

So we met at a nearby park at 5, had downed all the food by 5:30 and were slightly intoxicated by 5:30 ...ended up to be a very fun evening!

Wayne even managed to get himself a parting gift ...

...(this is a metal bird off a fence near our place!)