Chuseok 2026: What Korea Is Doing This Week, in Korean

Every Chuseok, Korea effectively stops. 추석 runs September 24–26 in 2026, and for three days the country reorganises itself around getting home.

Here is what actually happens, in Korean you can read.

What the holiday is

추석은 한국의 가장 큰 명절이에요.
chuseogeun hangugui gajang keun myeongjeorieyo
Chuseok is Korea’s biggest traditional holiday.

Breaking it down:

• 추석은 — 추석 + 은, marking it as the topic. As for Chuseok —
• 한국의 — Korea + 의, the possessive. Korea’s
• 가장 큰 — most + big. biggest
• 명절이에요 — traditional holiday + -이에요. is

추석 literally means “autumn evening,” and it lands on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month — which is why the date moves every year. The older, native Korean name is 한가위, and you will see it in greetings all week.

Everyone goes home

사람들이 고향에 가요.
saramdeuri gohyange gayo
People go to their hometowns.

고향에 takes 에 because 가다 is heading somewhere — the place is a destination, not a stage.

고향 itself is heavier than “hometown” in English. It means where your family is from — the place your parents or grandparents live, which you may never have lived in yourself.

The traffic is the story every year:

차가 많아서 길이 막혀요.
chaga manaseo giri makyeoyo
There are so many cars that the roads are jammed.

Note 차가, not 차는. You are pointing at something you are noticing right now, and 이/가 is what does that. And 많아서 uses -아서 / -어서 — stating a cause as plain fact, with a plain statement following it.

The word for this journey has its own name: 귀성길 (gwiseonggil), the road home. Every news bulletin during the holiday will tell you it is 정체 중 — congested.

The morning rite

아침에 차례를 지내요.
achime charyereul jinaeyo
In the morning, families hold the ancestral rite.

Two particles to notice: 아침에 uses 에 for a point in time, and 차례를 takes 를 because the rite is what 지내다 acts on.

차례 is a memorial ceremony for ancestors. Food is set out in a prescribed arrangement, the family bows, and the meal follows. This is the part with no equivalent in Western harvest holidays, and it is the reason Chuseok is emotionally weightier than a long weekend.

Fewer families do the full rite every year — a real and widely discussed shift, not a small one. Many now travel abroad instead, which older relatives have opinions about.

The food

송편을 만들어서 같이 먹어요.
songpyeoneul mandeureoseo gachi meogeoyo
We make songpyeon and eat it together.

송편 are half-moon rice cakes, steamed over pine needles, filled with sesame, red bean or chestnut. Making them together is the point as much as eating them is.

Here 만들어서 is the other job of -아서 / -어서 — not “because,” but two actions where the first sets up the second. You make them, then you eat those ones.

There is a saying you will hear:

더도 말고 덜도 말고 한가위만 같아라.
Not more, not less — may every day be like Chuseok.

The moon

밤에 보름달을 봐요.
bame boreumdareul bwayo
At night, people look at the full moon.

Chuseok always falls on a full moon, and making a wish on it is standard. If you are in Korea that night, look up — the moon is the whole point.

What to say

되세요 and 보내세요 are both polite commands built on the 해요 stem — you will use this -세요 ending constantly.

If you are in Korea for Chuseok

Cities empty out. Seoul is unusually quiet and unusually pleasant. Palaces are typically free to enter during the holiday, big chains and convenience stores stay open, and small family-run restaurants mostly close.

And if a Korean friend invites you to their family’s Chuseok — go. It is not a casual invitation.