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 Ch'usok |
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Ch'usok:
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The
Kim Family bowing at their ancestor's burial mound
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Until
recent times, Koreans used a different calendar to calculate the
year and dates for holidays. This was the old Chinese lunar calendar
in which months began with each new moon. Because lunar calendars
rarely coincide with modern solar calendars Asia festivals such
as Lunar New Year hardly ever fall on January 1. Perhaps the greatest Korean holiday is Ch'usok, or Harvest Moon
Festival, which is held on the 15th day of the Eighth Moon according to the
lunar calendar.
That is usually in September or October and is marked by the rising
of a full "Harvest Moon." Ch'usok is usually described as a kind of Thanksgiving for a good
harvest, but it is really an ancient holiday dedicated to the ancestors.
Families gather from
all over the country and from overseas for the great holiday.
Visitors to Korea are always warned to stay where they are at Ch'usok
time because almost everyone is on the road going back their ancestral
homes: journeys that by car would normally take two hours might take
fifteen!
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Family
member cleaning burial mound for Ch'usok
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Burial
Traditions:
All
across Korea, the eldest sons of the family will clean and prepare
the burial mounds of their most recently deceased ancestor. Koreans traditionally buried the dead under mounds standing upright in
coffins made from six planks of wood.
These represent the four
cardinal points on the compass plus a plank for heaven and the
other for earth. Corpses either face south or toward some important
spiritual part of the landscape such as mountains because these
are said to be the homes of the spirits of the land and sky. Even
in these modern times ancient symbolism remains important in burial
and memorial traditions.
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Honoring
the Ancestors:
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A
Ch'usok Memorial shrine.
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In many homes,
memorial shrines are set up to honor an ancestor. On the morning
of the Ch'usok festival, the family prepares the dishes with which
they will honor their ancestors. Special dishes are prepared and
set out on tables in front of the shrine. For instance, fresh
chestnuts gathered from the forests are cut into jewel-like shapes,
for easy stacking. Stacking things, whether stones or food, is
a form of prayer. Food is offered to the ancestors and every dish
must be passed over burning incense before it is acceptable. The
memorial service table has a set order of dishes: five rows of
different kinds of foods and sometimes cups of ch'ongju, a famous
rice wine. The
number five is important in Confucian thought. And fish are placed
on the eastside with their heads also facing east. Fish always
mean good fortune and the east signifies eternal life.
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The
Kim Family at their ancestors shrine.
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Everyone bows
to the ancestral shrine, including the women of the family. Until
fairly recently only men were permitted to carry out this ceremony,
but times have changed and women now have equal access to religious
rites. The whole ceremony is called Jesa, or "ceremony to
the dead."
After the ceremony in the home, the family will walk to their
ancestors' burial mound. There they bow again 2 1/2 times and
offer the spirit food and drink. Some of the food is set out around the tomb facing certain directions
in conformity with the Confucian belief that cardinal points on the compass
have mystical powers.
Food and stones are once again piled up as signs of good fortune
for the family and for the spirits of the ancestors.
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