7/31/2019 Artigo Sobre Festa Chusuk

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Celebrate!Chusuk, which is also called Hangawi or Jungchujeol,

is the biggest national holiday in Korea. Chusuk issimilar in origin and tradition to Thanksgiving Day inthe United States. Originally, all f amily members wouldcome together on Chusuk to celebrate an abundantharvest and give thanks to their ancestors.

Chusuk carries the meanings of harvest and grati-tude as families celebrate, relax and enjoy each other.

This national holiday falls on the 15th day of theeighth month on the lunar calendar and usually falls inSeptember on the solar calendar. Traffic jams are oneof the signs that the Chusuk holiday has arrived, asKoreans all over the country travel to their hometownsto celebrate with friends and family. This migration of citizens to their childhood homes has been dubbed the‘Great Movement of Nation.’ The Chusuk celebrationwill last for three days.

Chusuk ActivitiesSeong-myo: Families visit the tombs of their ances-tors, bringing a variety of prepared traditional food asan offering. Thanks are given to ancestors for the richharvest as well as for their blessings upon family mem-bers. Two deep bows are performed before the tombof ancestors, and then an offering of delicious food onbeautiful dishes is set for them. It is tradition to pre-pare and care for the tomb of ancestors the day beforeor on the day of Seong-myo; this is called ‘beol-cho,’and consists of mowing and grooming the resting place.Traditionally this falls on the day before the Chusukholiday.

Cha-rye: On the Chusuk day, thanks again are offeredfor ancestors’ blessings, and the celebration of a goodharvest continues with more festivities. Traditionalfoods are prepared including s ongpyeon, fruits, soup,pan-fried food, and more. The table is set with foodaccording to the traditional rule and turns are takenfor bowing. In some families, only men can attend theCha-rye ceremony. When both women and men attend

Cha-rye, it is customary for the men to position them-selves on the east side, whereas women are on the westside. Regarding bowing, men bow twice and womenbow four times.

KOREAN CULTURE

SongpyeonOne of the traditional foods for Chusuk

is songpyeon, a crescent-shaped rice cake.It is made by kneading newly harvestedrice flour into dumplings and stuffingthe dumplings with green beans, beansor sesame seeds. There is a sayingabout songpyeon: if the songpyeon arepretty-shaped, the woman who made

it will have a beautiful daughter; sowomen always try to make pretty-shaped songpyeon.

78 September 2007 / taekwondotimes.com taekwondotimes.com / September 2007 7

By Soyang Kwon

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Gr ound se same  se e d:  one  c u pSe same  oi l:  a lit t le  f or  c oat in g C i nnamon  pow de r :  t w o t able s poons1. Put  t w o c u ps of  w at e r  and one  c u p of  su g ar  in  pot  and boil. 

M ix  f ine  non g lut inous r ic e  f lour  w it h t he  hot  su g ar  w at e r . 

K ne ad t he  f lour  w e ll. K e e  p c ov e r in g  t he  dou g h w it h a w e t  

w r a p pin g  c lot h so it  w on’ t  dr y  out . 2. M ix   g r ound se same  w it h a  pinc h of  su g ar  and t he  salt . T he  

r at io f or  se same  and su g ar  is 2 t o 1. T his w ill be  t he  st uf f in g . 3. T ak e  a small  por t ion f r om t he  dou g h and r oll be t w e e n t he  

 palms, mak in g  a small ball of  dou g h. M ak e  a hollow -lik e  

w e ll w it h y our  t humb in t he  ball and  put  t he  st uf f in g  in t he  

hollow . C lose  t he  hollow  and mak e  t he  dou g h int o a she ll-

sha pe . W e ’v e  made  son g  py e ons!  But  t he y ’r e  not  c ook e d y e t !  

K e e  p c ov e r in g  t he  she ll-sha pe d son g  py e ons w it h a w e t  

w r a p pin g  c lot h t o  pr e v e nt  dou g h f r om dr y in g . 4 . F ill a lar  g e   pot  half w ay  w it h w at e r  and br in g  t o a boil. 

Ov e r  t he  w at e r ,  plac e  t he  son g  py e ons on a sc r e e n t o st e am. 

C ov e r  w it h a lid. St e am f or  30  minut e s. 5 . Af t e r  t he  30  minut e s of  st e amin g , t ur n of f  t he  st ov e , but  

k e e  p t he  son g  py e ons c ov e r e d and st e amin g  f or  anot he r  t e n 

minut e s, t he n c ool t he m quic k ly  w it h c old w at e r . F inally , 

li g ht ly  c oat  son g  py e ons w it h se same  oil and s pr ink le  w it h 

c innamon  pow de r . En j oy !  

Bowing and giving thanks to ancestors istradition on Chusuk.

Ladies preparing songpyeonfor Chusuk.

Photos provided by theKorean Tourist Organization.