우재연
| 2026-09-25 06:00:01
SEOUL, Sept. 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea celebrates Chuseok, the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving, as South Korea does by sharing food with family, paying respects to ancestors and playing traditional games.
The holiday there, however, lasts only a single day, and is not like the extended break enjoyed in South Korea.
More notably, it comes without the long lines of cars and clogged highways that mark the South's mass migration home, as North Koreans are not allowed to move freely around the country.
"In this month, there is a typical folk holiday called Chosok or Harvest Moon Day, Hangawi," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Sept. 2.
"From olden times, our people hold a memorial service with food made of new crop of the year before the tombs of their ancestors on the occasion of Chusok," the report said, calling the tradition as an expression of the people's deep respect for their elders.
"The dishes of Chusok are varied and tasteful. Among them is half-moon-shaped rice cake, and various folk games such as wrestling, swinging and tug of war are popular on the day," it added.
With entertainment scarce in North Korea, ssireum, or Korean wrestling, remains one of the most beloved pastimes.
A national ssireum tournament, held each year around Chuseok to crown the country's top ssireum athlete, dates to 2002, when Kim Jong-il, the late father of current leader Kim Jong-un, ordered its founding.
The KCNA most recently reported on the sport on Sept. 12, noting that ssireum "was registered as part of national intangible cultural heritage" in November 2013.
Historically, Kim Il-sung, the regime's founder, abolished traditional holidays like Chuseok in 1967, dismissing them as "feudal remnants."
But his son Kim Jong-il restored the Chuseok holiday in 1988 as part of efforts to preserve national culture. In 2015, North Korea designated Chuseok customs as a national intangible cultural heritage.
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