An American and his Korean wife discuss his first Chuseok experience, from ancestor rituals and expensive gift sets like premium Spam to the massive travel chaos. They compare it to Thanksgiving and wonder how they'll blend traditions for their future kids.
When I first saw that, it was just a big culture shock for me. Happy Chuseok! Today we are going to talk about my experiences celebrating Chuseok in Korea as an American. I remember my first Chuseok was about 10 years ago when I first came to Korea, and I was so nervous. Actually, that was my first time ever meeting a lot of your relatives.
My grandmother was pretty shocked.
Who's the foreigner here?
They were excited to see you, actually. She bowed and she get the pocket money.
They were really nice.
Good job, good job. Take the money. Wow.
I was so nervous because I knew that at Chuseok you have a lot of traditions like bowing and showing respect and honoring your ancestors. I didn't want to mess any of that up.
We have a certain order of doing the event. Even the table of food, there's an order, the rules of how to lay out those foods. I don't know anything about it, but my dad's expert. Like, our fathers always trying to educate us about the, uh, history of Hong's family.
They seem a little bit more formal, where I feel like holidays in the US, it's just kind of like a big party, to be honest. Every family has their own traditions, but it's usually not that serious. Do you remember the vibe on Thanksgiving?
Super chill. Everyone's just wearing PJs, sweatpants, hoodies, and taking a shot from the morning.
My whole family was so interested. They were like, wow, that is so cool that you honor your ancestors like that. We don't really have something like this in the US.
Sometimes I feel like we prepare too much. My mom has to work for like a couple days before. I think it's a little bit of a waste of money and time, to be honest, for the tradition. I mean, tradition is good. I think holiday is for people to catch up and having a good time with family, but then it becomes, uh, too much work. And then I remember my mom sometimes getting tired or even getting sick after the event. Buy stuff from the market, order from Coupang, you know, our ancestors will understand.
I think that happens sometimes in the US too. Some people really go above and beyond. Think of the Thanksgiving feast as well. I guess it happens with holidays sometimes, but seeing just how much prep that your family puts into it, yeah, it's crazy. This is actually the first year that we're not getting together and doing the whole ceremony.
Finally, they announced We're not doing this anymore. Take the plane, go somewhere, do whatever you want. Maybe we can have a dinner one day or something like that.
Yeah, we'll see your family and have dinner. Are you sad? No Chuseok traditions this year?
I'm pretty happy actually.
What?
So what's your favorite Chuseok food?
That's a tough one, but probably songpyeon. I love the texture of it and it's just really addicting.
You made it last year with my mom.
I know, my first time ever making it. From scratch like that. That was a really cool experience. One Chuseok food that I can never understand though is Spam. It's wild to me that around Chuseok time I start seeing all of these super expensive Spam gift sets. When I first saw that, I actually didn't believe it. I was like, "Oh, there must be an extra zero here." Like, that's a typo. In the US, It's very cheap. I would never think of giving someone Spam as a gift in the US. I think they would be really weirded out and maybe offended. But here I know it's quite different. It's actually a good gift, right?
It is. That's why I think they display in front of the department store, like, uh, wrapping in a fancy box.
It was just a big culture shock for me. I feel like Korean people give a lot of practical gifts. Whereas in the US, I feel like the gifts are a little bit more personal or sentimental.
Koreans are pretty practical. And also what I noticed about American gifts, you guys are giving small gifts but many. I think Koreans prefer one expensive gift or practical gift.
That's true. At my house at Christmas, it looks crazy. You'll walk in and the living room floor is covered in gifts, you can barely walk, but then you open up a gift and it's like a set of pencils, socks, very small things. Cookies. Yeah, cookies. Oh, I heard that you like this kind of chocolate, so I'm going to buy you this kind of chocolate. Or I noticed that you ran out of pens, so here's a pack of pens. These kinds of things.
It's very thoughtful.
It's thoughtful. It's the thought that counts, right?
That's why I get like all the protein cookies. Liquid IV and gym shirts and small things but many.
In Korea, it definitely seems like luxury gifts are better.
One big ones or practical.
What would you guys like more? A bunch of small things or one big nice gift? I know what you want.
I mean, do you need to ask?
When I think of Christmas, opening gifts is the fun part of the holiday. It is kind of fun when you have a bunch of things to open. It's a toss-up for for me. Since we're an international couple, I always think about the future. If we have kids, what holidays are we going to celebrate and what kind of traditions are we going to have? Do you ever think about that?
Lots of holidays. Chuseok, Seollal, Christmas, Thanksgiving.
Genuinely, do you see us celebrating Chuseok in the future with our kids?
I think so. I want to teach what Chuseok is about to them. And then I probably going to teach Hong's history. That's what I learned, and then I want them to know about it too.
Like father, like son. I'm American, you're Korean, so we should celebrate both cultures. So double the holidays.
Too many holidays.
Oh, come on. I love the holidays. Double the food, double the family. It's perfect. Don't give me that eye roll. This year, Chuseok is an especially long holiday. I think most people have the whole week off. The traffic jams are just insane because it's like the whole country is on the road that day. Even getting KTX tickets was—
That's impossible.
You had to book way in advance and everybody's ready to go at a certain time to try to reserve a seat.
It's very competitive.
We definitely have holiday traffic in the US, but it's not quite to this level, I don't think. So if you're traveling, please be safe and enjoy your Chuseok holiday. See you next time!
