Chuseok

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Chuseok
Ceremonial Chuseok Food
Korean name
Hangul:	추석
Hanja:	秋夕
Revised Romanization:	Chuseok
McCune-Reischauer:	Ch'usŏk

Chuseok, also sometimes spelt 'Chusok', is a major traditional holiday in Korea, celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the year. It is a thanksgiving feast and is also called Harvest Day, Harvest Moon Festival, or Hankawi (한가위,中秋节)(from "han" = "great" and "kawi" = "middle", i.e. "a great day in the middle of the autumn").

Hankawi is known at least since the early period of the kingdom of Silla (57 BC - AD 935), where it originally grew out of a month-long weaving contest between two teams. Come the day of Hankawi, the team that had woven more cloth had won and was treated to a feast by the losing team.

Nowadays, on Chuseok there is a mass exodus of Koreans returning to their hometowns, since hometowns are not only where one was born and raised, but where the spirits of one's ancestors are enshrined. People perform ancestral worship rituals early in the morning. They often visit the tombs of immediate ancestors to trim plants and clean the area around the tomb, and offer food, drink, and crops to their ancestors. Harvest crops are attributed to the blessing of ancestors, and Chuseok offers Koreans a unique opportunity to refresh their memory and gratitude to their ancestors.

One of the major foods prepared and eaten during the Chuseok holiday is Songpyeon (송편), a crescent-shaped rice cake which is steamed upon pine needles.

A variety of folk games are played on Chuseok, but these vary from region to region. A lion dance is performed in the north-west ^{[citation needed]}, a tug of war in Jeolla and Gyeongsan provinces. Other regions hold wrestling and archery contests. For all games, in all regions, a Nongak band performs.