On Chuseok

Today is the biggest national holiday of Korea, Chuseok. It is a kind of the Thanksgiving Day in Korea. People visit to their ancestral graves and relations on the occasion of Chuseok. They weed a grave and perform ancestor memorial rites, also. It is laborious tasks to busy modern Korean. And women are suffering from preparing much food for rites and visitors. Moreover in this period, a highway is very crowded by homecoming people. We can see many cars stuck on the way for a long time at every this season.

Then, why such many Koreans do these hard things?
I think it is related to Koreans' particular affections about family and ancestors. From old times Koreans live with large family. Today most Korean families are nuclear families. But family is still important to Korean. That's the reason that Koreans endure much hardships about a national holiday. We gather and appreciate to our ancestors. Through those things, we confirm relationships each others.