Chuseok: Korean Full Moon Festival and Shamanic Roots

Introduction to Chuseok

Chuseok is a Korean festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month. During this festival, Koreans offer produce from the harvest as a token of gratitude to their ancestors for providing them with good fortune. Chuseok is also known as Han Gah Wee, which translates as "big and in the center," indicating a significant day in the middle of the year. "It is a time of thanksgiving for the harvest and remembrance of one's ancestors" (Chusuk).

During this celebration, special food is prepared, including meat, fish, and newly harvested fruits and vegetables, as well as a soft rice cake known as songpyon. The celebration begins on the night before Chuseok and ends on the day after the holiday — typically a three-day period during which friends and family gather together (Wong B.K.).

What is significant about the festival is not the celebration itself but its relationship to deeper religious meanings. One of the most important of these is ancestor worship. For this reason, food is displayed in a ritualistic manner on a memorial table. Family members ritually bow to their ancestors and give thanks for the harvest. They also dress in a special way — in hanbok, or traditional Korean costume (Chusuk).

This formality points to the central thesis of this paper: an exploration of the religious significance behind the events of the festival. The central aspect of Chuseok is the celebration and appreciation offered to the ancestors. The thesis explored here is the relationship of the festival to Shamanic religious traditions as expressed through ancestor worship.

Origins of the Festival

There are many myths and folk tales surrounding the festival and its rituals. One of these relates to the circle dance performed during the celebration:

Chuseok festivities also feature a circle dance, ganggangsuwollaw, performed by women in the southwestern part of Korea. It supposedly developed from a trick women played on Japanese invaders in the sixteenth century by dancing around fires in the evening to make them believe their target was well defended. (Chang-Soo, K.)

A popular account of the festival's origins is as follows:

Shamanism and Ancestor Worship

Chuseok originated from an event during the Shilla dynasty. King You Ree divided the women of six local towns into two groups and requested that they hold a contest to determine which group was better at weaving. The losing team would have to prepare and serve dinner and drinks to the winners and perform a sad traditional song. Despite the competition, both sides enjoyed the subsequent feast and celebration, and over time the people changed the song's context to adopt a less somber tone. This event developed into what is now known as Chuseok. (Chusuk)

However, there are more ancient and substantial reasons for the importance of the festival and the traditions associated with it. The festival is in fact deeply connected to the foundations of Korean religion. Korean spirituality is essentially Shamanic in nature, and the practice of ancestor worship reflects the depth of the Shamanic worldview that underlies the festival's meaning.

The most important aspect to consider when trying to understand ancestor worship and its relationship to Shamanism in Korean culture is the emphasis on the presence of those who have died in the world of the living. Shamanism was — and in some cases still is — an ancient form of religious belief and practice based on the idea that there are other dimensions to this world that exist alongside or co-present with ordinary life. The shaman, or "priest," is the one who can enter these different worlds and perform acts of healing while in a state of trance. All Shamanic traditions emphasize that ancestors remain present and even unseen participants in the ordinary world. This gives some idea of the importance of ancestor worship and the concept of giving thanks for the help of the ancestors in a new harvest.

In Korea, as in other East Asian nations, emphatic respect is shown to elder generations, including the deceased. The latter, while no longer living, are not necessarily perceived as having ceased entirely from involvement with the visible generations on earth. (Mousalimas S.A.)

There are many variations to this belief, and it has been adapted — and at times suppressed — due to modern and Western influences. However, the belief and sentiments attached to ancestor worship exist throughout Korean culture, where ancestors "remain somehow normally present and active among descendants" (ibid). In Korean culture, one therefore has an obligation to demonstrate respect towards one's ancestors: "Just as one should demonstrate respect towards elder members of one's immediately visible household and community, so likewise one has an obligation to demonstrate respect towards deceased members of one's household and community" (ibid).

In essence, the worship of the dead is rooted in the fundamental Shamanic view of reality, in which the invisible world is co-present with the visible, ordinary world of everyday life. This relates directly to the ancestors and those who have passed from this plane of existence. "The fundamental belief is that we do not simply blink out of existence when we die, but take on an ethereal form and continue to exist. Not only do we continue to exist, we also maintain some connection to the world of the living" (Liminality, 2004).

Understanding the importance of Chuseok also requires understanding that Shamanism is the foundational religion of the Korean people. This is a point on which many experts agree: "Scholars hold many different opinions about Korean shamanism, its character and components, but they agree on one thing, that shamanism represents the oldest stratum in Korean folk religion (Carter-Covell 1981; Covell 1986; Guisso-Yu 1988; Kendall 1987, 1988)" (Hoppal).

In this sense, ancestor worship can also be understood as a form of social propriety — a kind of "good manners." If one accepts the belief that those who have died are still present in everyday life, then the festival's rituals of reverence toward ancestry are equivalent to bowing and showing respect to one's elders in the community. A further reason for this custom is the belief that it will bring good fortune, achieved by

...securing the benevolent attitude of ancestors who have been properly honored...just as one might seek to secure the favor of elders in one's immediately visible household or immediately visible community, in order to obtain their good-will for one's own prosperity and well-being: so likewise, one does virtually the same with regard to one's ancestors who are perceived to be somehow here still present and somehow here still active. (Mousalimas S.A.)

The Festival of Chuseok is therefore centrally concerned not simply with a holiday and its celebrations, but with honoring the ancestors and participating in an ancient religious vision of the world. "The holiday's first duty is to the dead. Early in the morning family members attend a simple memorial service at home for their ancestors, or they go out to visit their family grave sites and public cemeteries in the countryside or in the suburbs of cities" (Chang-Soo, K.). Offerings are then made in front of the burial mound or tombstone.

Conclusion

The Chuseok festival represents many aspects of Korean culture. It serves a social and community function and is part of the heritage and traditions of the culture. In order to understand the significance and importance of the festival, one must understand the background of Shamanism. The essential purpose of the festival remains embedded in the ancient culture of Shamanism, and its central function is to ensure, through respect and worship, the success of the next harvest. "Koreans believe that if you take care of your ancestors, your ancestors will take care of you. In traditional agricultural society, the harvest was the most important event of the year, and it was vital to make sure it was a success" (Liminality, 2004).