Chusok?

The Korean Thanksgiving holiday is just as much about family gatherings as the American one; it just occurs before the fourth Thursday of November. Chusok occurs on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. Websites tell me that Korea celebrates Chusok for three days this year: October 5th, 6th and 7th. Damn, I didn't know my people were capable of partying for three days straight. Don't ask me about Chusok or how the lunar calendar differs from the solar - all I know is that it's a huge holiday (just like the American Thanksgiving) and the date changes every year.

My beef: I don't remember my family ever celebrating Chusok. It was as if my parents were too busy to celebrate, or perhaps they deliberately ignored the holiday since none of their family members were in the States. Similarly, Christmas was not a fun or joyous occasion on most years. Perhaps Chusok just marked the beginning of a miserable holiday season and therefore my family didn't put in the effort to acknowledge the gloomy days ahead.

All I know is that on Thursday, a professor walked into my office after one of his students handed out moon cakes in honor of her home country's holiday and he asked me if I knew what it (the cake) was. Of course, just as he asked me, another professor and two students walked into my office right behind him. As all four faces turned to me, I could do nothing but stare blankly back at them and pathetically confess that "I honestly don't know. My family never observed that holiday." And then I mumbled something under my breath to the effect of how pathetic this made me. This got a few chuckles and no one thought twice about it, but I sure felt dumb looking the way I do and not knowing about my parents' native country's biggest holiday.

I am seriously going to have to learn more about the motherland. Anybody care to share their experiences with Chusok? All I know is that on this Thanksgiving holiday, folks visit the burial sites of their ancestors, return home, eat lots of good food including dduk, play games and get several days off from work. Oh, and I know for a fact that there's no turkey or mashed taters on the spread.

Boy, it really sucked to grow up in the States without any relatives around. If we had even one uncle or aunt around, I'm sure we would have celebrated and I wouldn't have felt like such a moron on Thursday.