Chuseok is one of the biggest national holidays in both North and South Korea. It falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. This year it will land on September 21 and celebrations typically span three full days starting on the day before the actual holiday. The celebration is focused around the harvest and is similar to Thanksgiving in the US but culturally, the holiday has the importance of Christmas in the West.
During Chuseok the entire peninsula shuts down and people return to their hometowns to celebrate. Festivities include a large, traditional meal and the most traditional observers pay homage to their ancestors by visiting their gravesites. For a second year, we expect celebrations on both sides of the DMZ will be muted as COVID-19 restrictions will impair the movement of people in both countries.
There is one population who will not be visiting their hometowns during Chuseok: North Korean refugees. These people are permanently severed from their families and friends who are still caught in the country. They cannot call or write into North Korea. There is no form of Zoom or Facetime they can use to virtually join these celebrations. Most ties are all but severed.
Consider what it might feel like to be alone on Christmas as the world around joins their families to celebrate. North Koreans already feel isolated in South Korea but this shared holiday highlights this cold reality.
North Korean refugees in South Korea typically gather with fellow North Korean friends and engage in heavy drinking, according to our staff in South Korea. In the absence of immediate family, they gather with people who come from the same hometown in North Korea. Some celebrate with people who they came into South Korea with, people they can share their earliest memories of their new country.
The holiday starts with families visiting the gravesites of their ancestors to pay respect, something that is impossible for North Korean refugees to do. Chuseok celebrations then focus on food, specifically songpyeon, a rice cake with sweet fillings such as red bean, chestnuts, dates or honey. But for North Koreans, reminders of how food ran dry during the famine often pepper their feelings of nostalgia with pain.
Elim House resident “Kristine” remembers when she was a little girl in her hometown eating songpyeon and traditional Korean vegetables such as bean sprouts. In North Korea before the famine, Kristine’s family made a large amount of songpyeon and brought it to her grandparents' tomb. After bowing three times, she remembers sitting around and feasting. The famine changed all of this, she said.
When the famine took hold in the late 90s, there was nothing to eat and no more rice cake to make on Chuseok. This is when she decided to make the dangerous journey across the river to China.
This Chuseok, our South Korea team will celebrate with our Elim House residents and enjoy traditional food and activities together like a family. The celebration will be centered around God’s goodness in the lives of the refugees. Though this holiday is often a painful reminder of the homes and families they left, there is much to be thankful for: a safe place to stay, people who are there to help them rebuild their lives, and the love of their Heavenly Father.
