Happy Chusok

One of the things I love about being in Korea is its national holidays. And of those, one of the biggest, on close competition for popularity with New Years is Chusok, the Korean Thanksgiving holiday. There’s something very ‘warm’ about it as roads become paralyzed because of traffic as families travel across the country to visit one another, and the brightly illuminated shop windows turn off their neon-ness for at least one or two days across Seoul, as there are more important things than making money: family. I think in such a fast-paced technologically hip age as we live in today (especially in Korea the land that boasts of the fastest internet on the planet earth and has 90% of its population fidgeting with smartphones), it’s not only a good reminder of the importance of family and thanksgiving but also there’s a warmth in the upholding of that tradition. Like a time machine that reminds us of our ancestors (who lived without Iphones or internet) and the primal quality of being grateful for the harvest, appreciating family members (yes living beings, not gadgets), and food.

 

Yes, food is another reason why I love this holiday. Somehow it feels more abundant than the New Years feast. And provides another excuse to eat lots. You can’t feel too guilty when you know the whole nation is at it like you. And I love our family gatherings. On Monday, we gathered at our uncle’s place – my two cousins getting taller every time I see them which makes me feel old. Once they stop growing vertically and start growing facial hair, then I will feel really old. The laughter on my dad’s side of the family mostly revolves around grandpa who is quite the character.

On this particular day, we were told the story of his tattoo. He spent 2/3s of the Korean War as a POW (we also tease him about this because he was captured by the North so quickly), and apparently it was a fad to etch a tattoo on your body as a sort of reminder or some kind of motto to keep you going. So my grandpa’s fellow POWS would inscribe names of loved ones or powerful words but guess what my grandpa has tattoed on his left arm? ‘SODA’ – 사 이다 in Korean to be exact. This cracked us up.

“Why, why?”

“Because I liked soda and worked at a soda factory.”

But because it was written for him to be able to read it when he looks down, whenever people would ask what that is, he’d say it was Russian just to seem cool. Oh the endless stories with grandpa. And the whole family graveyard outing… I’ll have to write these down sometime.