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Chuseok (추석) is one of South Korea's three great traditional holidays, alongside Seollal and Dano, and it is arguably the one most defined by food. Celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, typically falling in September or October, Chuseok is Korea's harvest festival, a time to give thanks for the year's bounty, honor ancestors, and gather with family around a table laden with traditional dishes. If you want to understand the heart of Korean food culture, the foods of Chuseok are the place to start.
The Importance of Food at Chuseok
Food at Chuseok is not just about eating. It is ritual, memory, and family identity compressed into a set of dishes that most Koreans have been making and eating since childhood. The charye ritual (차례), the ancestral memorial rite performed on Chuseok morning, centers on a carefully arranged table of traditional foods offered to the spirits of ancestors. After the ritual, the family sits together and shares the same food, creating a connection between the living and the dead, the past and the present, that is deeply meaningful in Korean culture.
Songpyeon: The Chuseok Rice Cake
Songpyeon (송편) is the signature food of Chuseok and perhaps the most distinctive seasonal rice cake in the Korean culinary calendar. These small, half-moon shaped rice cakes are made from rice flour dough, filled with sweet fillings such as sesame seeds and honey, red bean paste, or chestnuts, then steamed on a bed of pine needles that give the cakes a subtle, resinous fragrance. The making of songpyeon is a family activity, with multiple generations gathering in the kitchen to shape the cakes together. There is a popular saying that the woman who makes the prettiest songpyeon will have beautiful children.
Jeon: Korean Savory Pancakes
Jeon (전) is the collective name for Korean savory pancakes, and Chuseok is prime jeon season. During the holiday, Korean kitchens fill with the sound and smell of jeon sizzling in oil from early morning. Common varieties for Chuseok include pajeon (green onion pancake), kimchi jeon (kimchi pancake), haemul pajeon (seafood and green onion pancake), hobak jeon (zucchini rounds dipped in egg batter), and dongtae jeon (pollock pancakes). Jeon appears on both the ancestral rite table and the family dining table, and in most households it is made in enormous quantities as children and grandchildren return home for the holiday.
Galbijjim: Braised Short Ribs
Galbijjim (갈비지짜) is braised beef short ribs, slow-cooked with Korean pear, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and a range of other aromatics until the meat falls from the bone. It is a dish reserved for special occasions, both because of the time required to prepare it and the cost of the ingredients. At Chuseok, galbijjim represents the generosity and abundance of the harvest season, and its rich, glossy sauce and tender meat make it one of the most beloved dishes in the Korean culinary repertoire.
Japchae: Glass Noodle Stir-Fry
Japchae (잡채) is a dish of sweet potato glass noodles stir-fried with a colorful array of vegetables including spinach, carrots, mushrooms, and onion, combined with sliced beef and seasoned with soy sauce and sesame oil. Sweet, savory, and slightly chewy, japchae appears at virtually every major Korean celebration and is particularly associated with Chuseok. Making japchae is time-consuming because each vegetable is cooked separately before being combined, but the result is both beautiful and deeply satisfying.
Seasonal Fruits and Sweets
Chuseok falls at harvest time, and seasonal fruits play a central role in both the ancestral rites table and the family meal. Bae (Korean pear) is the quintessential Chuseok fruit, large, crisp, and very sweet, served in carefully peeled slices. Persimmons (gam), chestnuts (bam), and jujubes (daechu) also appear on the charye table and in various traditional dishes. Traditional sweets for Chuseok include hangwa such as yakgwa (deep-fried honey cookies) and yugwa (puffed rice and malt syrup confections).
Chuseok Drinks: Sindoju and Baekju
Ancestral rites at Chuseok traditionally involve offering sindoju (신도주), a rice wine brewed specifically for the harvest festival using newly harvested grain. In everyday celebration, families drink makgeolli (Korean rice wine), soju, or sikhye, a sweet, cold rice punch made by fermenting steamed rice in a malt barley drink. Sikhye is mild, non-alcoholic, and often served as a palate cleanser between heavier dishes.
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