Dear reader,
If you’re planning a trip to Korea in late September, there’s one word you need to know: Chuseok. Book your KTX ticket a day too late and you might find every seat between Seoul and anywhere else already gone. This letter is about why.
What exactly is Chuseok
Chuseok (추석) is often translated as “Korean Thanksgiving,” and the comparison isn’t wrong, it’s a harvest festival, it’s about family, and it’s about food. But calling it that undersells what actually happens. For three days, an entire country of over 50 million people tries to go home at the same time.
Chuseok 2026: the dates
This year, Chuseok falls on September 25, a Friday, with the official holiday running Thursday, September 24 through Saturday, September 26. In practice, the highways start filling a day or two before that, and don’t fully empty out until a day or two after.
What actually happens during Chuseok
Most Koreans return to their hometown, wherever their parents or grandparents live, no matter how far. Families gather for charye (차례), a table set with food for the ancestors, followed by seongmyo (성묘), visiting and tidying the family gravesite. It’s less solemn than it sounds. Between the rites, there’s a lot of eating, a lot of catching up, and, if you ask most Koreans privately, a lot of relatives asking when you’re getting married.
The taste of Chuseok
If there’s one food to know, it’s songpyeon (송편), half-moon-shaped rice cakes stuffed with sesame, chestnut, or sweet red bean, and steamed over a bed of pine needles, which is where the faint pine scent comes from. Making songpyeon together as a family, usually the night before, is its own small tradition. Older relatives will tell you that whoever shapes the prettiest songpyeon ends up with a beautiful daughter. I’ve never made a pretty one yet.
What this means if you’re visiting
Here’s the practical part. During the holiday itself, most small businesses, local restaurants, and traditional markets close, family time takes priority over serving customers. Department stores, palaces, and most tourist attractions in Seoul, on the other hand, stay open, and with fewer locals around, some of the city’s usually crowded spots get noticeably quieter. The catch is transportation: KTX tickets and rental cars for the days immediately around Chuseok sell out weeks in advance, so if your trip overlaps with it, book early or plan to stay put in one city for those few days.
To sum up
Chuseok isn’t a festival you watch from the sidelines, it’s something that happens inside Korean households, mostly out of sight. But if you happen to be in Korea when it does, you’ll feel it anyway: in the quiet streets, the packed trains, and the smell of songpyeon steaming somewhere nearby.
See you in the next letter.
From Seoul, whigoori
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