Day of the great middle-autumn
Chaelim Lee
Do you like songpyeon? I sure do. It’s delicious when you eat it on Chuseok with your relatives. Chueok is a major harvest festival for Korean people that takes place on August 15th by the lunar calendar. Chuseok, also known as Hangawi, is a great holiday to visit their ancestors and celebrate the harvest.
The first step of preparing the Chuseok is to make foods such as songpyeon and Hangwa. Songpyeon is a traditional Korean rice cake stuffed with beans, cinnamon, walnut, and etc. When you make songpyeon, it is important to steam it on the layer of pine-needles. It prevents songpyoeon from sticking together and makes taste better. People say that when you make good-looking songpyeon, you can have pretty daughter later. So many people have great time making songpyeon comparing each other’s songpyeon, insisting each other’s are the prettiest ones.
Then do the Charye in the morning of the Chuseok. This is the ancestral memorial rites that honoring our ancestors and offering them our harvest. Since Korean believe that ancestor’s spirits are still around us protecting the descendents, we give thanks to them by remembering and offering special food for them. We arrange the table for the Charye in particular order. For example, rice and soup goes on the north, whereas fruits and vegetables goes on the south.
Finally, we go to our ancestor’s grave. It’s called Seongmyo. People remove weeds around their ancestor’s grave: this is called Bulcho. And people clean the tomebstone, washing away all the dirts. It’s a way of showing our respect for the ancestors and remembering them. Ancestor worship is means a lot for Koreans, and Seongmyo is the most powerful way of carrying this cult since it’s done on the exact spot where their ancestor buried.
There’s many other customs that’s done on Chuseok; folk games such as SSireum, ganggangsullae. But these days people usually skip this games for our life is too busy. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t appreciate Chuseok. It is a major holidays along with the Korean New Year(Seullal) for hundreds of years. Chuseok is still great harvest festival for Koreans, making people get together and remember our ancestors.
Hello Chaelim! My name is Xeniya. It was really interesting to learn more about Korean national holiday. So here my comments:
ReplyDelete1. I think that your essay would be better if you provide strong thesis statement that showing the process of preparation and celebration of harvest festival.
2. I think you provided background information such as the purpose of celebration this holiday and date.
3. Yes. I think you could provide whole process of preparation in a sequence. However, the second and third paragraphs show that the importance of showing respect to ancestors is very important. So Korean people usually offer them food and clean their tombstones. I think it would be better if you combine those two supporting ideas in one.
4. In the first body paragraph you discussed about making national rice cakes. In the second body paragraph you were describing memorial rites and offering food that you make in order to honor ancestors. In the third body paragraph you talked about cleaning tombstones and ancestor worship.
5. I believe that you have sufficient supporting details such as explanations of sonpyeon, Charye, Seongmyo.
6. I think that your conclusion shows the importance of this holiday.
Second Draft
ReplyDeleteDo you like songpyeon? I sure do. It’s delicious when you eat it on Chuseok with your relatives. Chueok is a major harvest festival for Korean people that takes place on August 15th by the lunar calendar. It’s a rare chance for Koreans to see their relatives. Chuseok, also known as Hangawi, is a great holiday to visit their ancestors and celebrate the harvest.
The first step of preparing the Chuseok is to make foods such as songpyeon and Hangwa. Songpyeon is a traditional Korean rice cake stuffed with beans, cinnamon, walnut, and etc. When you make songpyeon, it is important to steam it on the layer of pine-needles. It prevents songpyoeon from sticking together and makes taste better. People say that when you make good-looking songpyeon, you can have pretty daughter later. So many people have great time making songpyeon comparing each other’s songpyeon, insisting each other’s are the prettiest ones. Making songpyeon is a important custom rather than something enjoyable play, for it’s a ceremonial convention to celebrate gatherings of relatives.
Then do the Charye in the morning of the Chuseok. This is the ancestral memorial rites that honoring our ancestors and offering them our harvest. Since Koreans believe that ancestor’s spirits are still around us protecting the descendants, we give thanks to them by remembering and offering special food for them. We arrange the table for the Charye in particular order. For example, rice and soup goes on the north, whereas fruits and vegetables go on the south. This order varies region to region.
Finally, we go to our ancestor’s grave. It’s called Seongmyo. People remove weeds around their ancestor’s grave: this is called Bulcho. And people clean the tombstones, washing away all the dirt. It’s a way of showing our respect for the ancestors and remembering them. Ancestor worship is means a lot for Koreans, and Seongmyo is the most powerful way of carrying this cult since it’s done on the exact spot where their ancestor buried.
There’s many other customs that’s done on Chuseok; folk games such as SSireum, ganggangsullae. But these days people usually skip this games for our life is too busy. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t appreciate Chuseok. It is a major holidays along with the Korean New Year(Seullal) for hundreds of years. Chuseok is still great harvest festival for Koreans, making people get together and remember our ancestors.