Saturday, September 13, 2008

Chuseok - Korean Thanksgiving Day

There are two big holidays in Korea. One is Seolnal(New Year) and the other is Chuseok(Thanksgiving Day). We eat Ddeokguk(rice cake soup) on New Year. Especailly we have to eat it like our ages. For example, If I am 10, I have to eat ten bowls of rice cake soup. Haha. Nowadays it's just function and Only some follow this custom though. We make Songpeon which rice cake filled peanut or sugal inside. Mom and I made 500 pieces of this today.

We make several types of fried food. Because Chuseok is in September or October and the weather is still warm. It's one reason to make food go bad easily. If we fry something, we can store it longer than usual. So our ancestor started to fry food. That's why we make fried food a lot. Fried Baechu(You know Baechu of Kimchi), tofu, squid, shrimp, salted fish, meat ball and mush room.

We also make a sweet drink made with fermented rice. If someone visits my house, we treat them to have this drink and rice cake. Mom bought lots of fruits including watermelon, yellow melon, apple, pear, banana, grapes and sometimes strawberry.

Moreover, there are lots of leaves for Bibimbab. Boiled pork, beef, egg, chestnut, jujube, dried octopus and Alaska pollack, fried seaweed, and so on. It's big holiday right?

If I wasn't here, My mom would do this by herself. I can't imagine this though. As you know Korea, If woman marries someone, she has to do this several times in a year. Once a year is ok, but twice isn't good. I can't do this and I don't want to do this at all. It makes me tired a lot. After cooking, I had to take a shower. My clothes were wet because of perspiring.

I am really excited Tomorrow is Chuseok. I will visit my grandparents graves and relatives in my hometown. ^0^ I want to show this to you soon.

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