Chuseok

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Description

A look at the Korean Harvest festival "Chuseok". It fits in nicely with harvest festivals and the Autumn term. (Although in Korea it is celebrated around August, depending on the moon.) https://www.chuseok.info/ With 5 suggested activities to help them celebrate Chuseok.

1. Paper plate drum craft
2. Korean name writing
3. Food tasting
4. Wishing to the moon
5. Juldarigi


Resources

The Story of the Rabbit in the moon.
A long time ago there lived a rabbit, a fox and a monkey in a small mountain village. The three animals decided to devote their whole lives to Buddhism and did special training for a long time. One day a god who protects Buddhism tested them to see how strong their faith was. He told them to bring him something to eat. The fox caught fish and gave this to the god. The monkey collected acorns from the trees and gave this to the god, but the rabbit came back with just a few tree branches. He created a fire with the branches and and jumped in saying "I offer myself. Please eat me when I am cooked". The god was very impressed with the rabbits dedication and sent the animal to become guardian of the moon. The rabbit has lived up there ever since. What looks like smoke surrounding the rabbit on the moon symbolizes the fire he lit to burn himself.

PAPER PLATE DRUM
2 paper plates per child
wooden sticks or chop sticks
blue, red and yellow crayons, paint or chop sticks
string
pony beads

MOON WISHES
paper and pencils to write or draw the wishes on

KOREAN NAME WRITING
Each child's name in Korean for them to copy.

FOOD TASTING
Ideally we would have made or got hold of songypeon which is a special food they eat at Chuseok but this proved to be impossible maybe someone else will have better luck. Instead we went for kimchi, melon (as a familiar for the ones that might not be willing to try new foods) and persimmon.

JULDARIGI
It is a traditional Korean folk game/ sport similar to tug of war. The winning team is believed to have the best harvest.

Instructions

Talk about what the fire could be. Tell them that in the evening in Korea they would make a wish to the full moon. Can they think about what they would wish ready to draw or write it.


Tags

  • Buddhism
  • Chuseok
  • Festival
  • harvest festival
  • international
  • Korean

Badge Links

  • International - Festival
  • Let's Celebrate - Craft
  • Let's Celebrate - Festivals
  • World - Festival