Chuseok, the Korean Harvest Moon Festival 2022

It’s that time of the year with Chuseok, the Korean Harvest Moon Festival right around the corner.

In 2022, the Chuseok Public holidays will begin on Friday September 9 through Monday September 12. — Chuseok falling on Saturday, September 10.

Koreans, as many agrarian cultures, once followed the lunar calendar, but in recent history, they have deferred to the solar calendar in line with international practice.

While public holidays are based on the solar calendar, there are a few days that are celebrated based on the lunar calendar.

These are the two most important traditional holidays, the Korean New Year’s Day (the first day of the first lunar month) and the Chuseok mid-autumn festival (fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month).

In mass, and I mean a substantial part of the population travel. For many this can be back to their home villages. Over the holiday they perform ancestral rituals at the graves of relatives as well as share time with their family over traditional foods. Others opt to travel, or a popular trend has been staycations in luxury hotels.

For your Korean colleagues (in Korea), you can wish them a happy Chuseok by Kakao, phone, text, or email this coming Wednesday, September 7 after 4 PM (that’s Thursday AM in Korea KST).