Chuseok and Namsangol Hanok Village

Chuseok, also called Hangawi - and often referred to as the Korean "Thanksgiving" - is a major autumnal holiday in Korea, where families give thanks to their ancestors for the year's harvest during the full harvest moon. This year, Chuseok happened over five days, from September 6-10, 2014, and we had the opportunity to enjoy a number of activities in a relatively quiet Seoul (millions of people traveled to their home towns, so the traffic and crowds in Seoul were non-existent!)

On Saturday, Rob ventured up north on a USO tour of the DMZ, snapping a few pictures along the way.

Look kids, North Korea!

Michael and I joined a group from post on a stroller friendly hike up Namsan Mountain towards Seoul Tower - "friendly" because it had no stairs, but it was still all uphill! We made it, though!

At the top there were a number of traditional Korean games laid out for kids 

of all ages to play, as well as the obligatory photo stops!

Where's Michael?

Michael and Haechi, the Seoul mascot

On Sunday, we headed to the War Memorial of Korea for some afternoon fun.  

There was an elaborate display in the lobby dedicated to Superintendent General Cha Il-Hyuk, the Hero of September.

The Robocar Poly play area was still open, so Michael had a great time bouncing, climbing, and swinging for a few hours - from this video, you can see he has no fear!

We also had some artistic fun along the way.

Later that night, I went to go see The Painters, courtesy of the Korea Tourism Organization - it's a very fun, non-verbal show.

On Monday, the actual day of Chuseok, we headed over to the 

Namsangol Hanok Village for their Harvest Moon Festival.

The village is made up of traditional Hanok houses - open air structures with tiled roofs and "ondol" floors (water heated floors). Each house had displays of furniture and fixtures to study.

Kitchen

Example of ceremonial meal offering

There were a number of craft and activity stations throughout the village for the weekend - writing, straw crafts, and kid stations, among them.

Michael's mask craft - with sticky bead-like play-doh.

 I managed to snap a picture of the Harvest Moon on Tuesday morning - 

it was huge, which this picture just does not do justice...

Happy Chuseok!