September 13 -1, 2019

Today marks the beginning of the observance of Chuseok, an Autumn Festival when Korean people honor their male ancestors.  I am going to start with the very cute photos of Jung Il-woo dressed for Chuseok in the time of Unstoppable High Kick.  He looked so adorable!!  I am also including part of another post for those new fans that may want some extra information about what Chuseok is and how it is traditionally celebrated.  This information will be right after the photos.

May god bless you and your ancestors!

Ready to WOOdelight?  Here we go! (Cr. MBC)

 

I love this last photo with all the characters!

I also find a video that has two parts where Jung Il-woo is dressed in that Hanbok practicing his lines?  Sadly we can’t hear him because of the background music:

And this is the video of Il-woo and Park Min-young giving their Chuseok Greeting:

They are so cute!

Here is the bit of information about the holiday:

“Chuseok (Hangul:추석;秋夕), literally “Autumn eve”, once known as hangawi (Hangul: 한가위 from archaic Korean for “the great middle (of autumn)”), is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in North Korea and South Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar on the full moon. Like many other harvest festivals around the world, it is held around the autumn equinox, i.e. at the very end of summer or in early autumn. ” Cr. Wikipedia

“In the morning of the day of Chuseok, family members gather at their homes to hold memorial services called charye in honor of their ancestors. Formal charye services are held twice a year: during Seollal (Lunar New Year’s Day) and Chuseok. During Chuseok’s charye, freshly harvested rice, alcohol and songpyeon (half-moon rice cakes) are prepared as an offering to the family’s ancestors. After the service, family members sit down together at the table to enjoy delicious food. ” Cr. Imagine your Korea

This coming up is taken from another website:

“The oldest male heir of a household holds jesa to honor his family. This means that my husband, who is an only son, would honor his father and his father’s father when it is his turn to hold jesa. Currently, my husband’s father is still alive so, we go to his house to hold jesa and we honor my husband’s father’s father and his father’s grandfather and his father’s grandfather’s brother because his father’s grandfather’s brother had no male heirs. Technically only men are allowed to hold jesa which means that if my husband’s father’s grandfather’s brother had had a female heir, she would not be able to hold jesa for him because presumably she would have married into another family and would be honoring her husband’s family which is how we came to honor his father’s grandfather’s brother as well during our jesa ceremony. Jesa is passed down through the oldest male heir/relative and that’s the easiest way to remember, put simply. That is also one of the reasons that having a son has traditionally been so important to families. My husband is now the third generation in a row to have only one male heir to carry on the tradition so it is important for him to learn and continue to honor his line for his ancestors. ” Cr. The Soul of Seoul. net

Now…I’m going to make an assumption, I am going to assume that Ilwoo, who is Catholic celebrates Chuseok.  According to my Korean tutor, protestants can’t celebrate Chuseok, but Catholics can…  he might not celebrate the traditional Chuseok and attend a Catholic mass to remember his ancestors…  this is on my list of questions to ask Jung II-woo someday!  So making the assumption that Jung II-woo celebrates a traditional Chuseok… this is what would happen:

So in Ilwoo’s case, because his father is alive, his father has the responsibility to host Chuseok and the “charye” memorial service.  Jung II-woo will go to his parent’s on September 24th and help in the preparations and participate in the service. He will honor his father’s father and the male ancestors up to four generations before.  Of what I read, only the men are honored in this ceremony.

The first thing they do is set an altar table. The placing of the food on this altar is placed according to their colors and make up.  Jung II-woo is probably very involved in this as he loves to cook and various dishes are especially prepared.  To see in detail how they do this, visit HERE.  This is what the table place setting looks like:

After the table is set, the family will participate in the “jesa” or ceremony prayer for the ancestors.  This ceremony is very symbolic and beautiful.  It is also very arduous as it involves bowing many times.   You can read about it HERE.

Another traditional custom of Chuseok is seongmyo, or visit to the ancestral graves. Seongmyo is an old tradition that is still carried out to show respect and appreciation for family ancestors. During seongmyo, family members remove the weeds that have grown around the graves and pay respect to the deceased with a simple memorial service.  Cr. Wikipedia.