Chuseok/Misadventures

Today, Koreans celebrate chuseok, the so-called "Korean Thanksgiving." Although yesterday was also a public holiday, today is the day of the celebration itself. Seeing as I don't know any Koreans well enough to have been invited to a chuseok dinner, I cannot relate here a tale of participant observation, and instead have to rely on hearsay and a cursory search of internet resources. Chuseok has a 2,000 year+ history, dating back to the Silla Dynasty(57 B.C. to 935 A.D.) of the Three Kingdoms period. Some have claimed that the celebration grew out of a weaving contest organized by Silla King Yu-Rhee between two handpicked teams of expert female weavers. The losing team, as judged by the King, would have to prepare and serve a feast for the winning team with the freshly harvested autumn crops. Chuseok falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, and is bookended by two additional days of holiday in order to accomodate travel to and from the homes of elders. Typically, traffic is incredibly saturated throughout the nation on these days. The important aspects, as far as I can tell from what I have read and what my students have told me, include eating seasonal foods, especially songpyeon (a special variety of rice cake that is specifically associated with chuseok), visiting with extended family, paying respects to the dead and cleaning up the gravesites of ancestors (typically an activity for the elder males in the family), dressing in the hanbok, and lots of singing, playing games, and dancing. As far as my own observations, I noticed that many businesses were closed for the day (Cheonsang was an out and out ghost-town!), traffic in Ulsan was lighter, and the buses were less crowded. I spotted a few people wearing the hanbok, mostly young girls in Cheonsang, and as the bus I was riding downtown passed by the largest cemetery in Ulsan I noticed a long line of parked cars and people passing in and out of the cemetery gates (it also seemed to be a profitable day for the flower ajummas, who were camped outside of the gates). Chuseok is often compared to the American Thanksgiving; both are autumnal celebrations centered around eating special foods and spending time with family, but I think there are clearly too many differences to draw a direct comparison between the two.

I had hoped to be able to post some more pictures of the pastoral beauty around Ulsan during my time off this week, but my attempts at adventuring have not quite gone as planned. Yesterday, I decided to visit the Naewonam valley at the foot of Daeunsan, just south of Ulsan on the road to Busan. However, I soon realized that I had very little idea about where I was going or how long exactly the journey would take. I followed the directions in an officially sanctioned tourist map and hopped in the 507 headed out of town. Although I'm certain that I did indeed end up in the Naewonam valley, I was unable to find any clear markings to the trails around Daeunsan. Thus, I ended up hiking aimlessly up into the foothills, eventually ending up at a Buddhist temple hidden behind some rice fields and trees:














Having decided to abort the adventure for the present, I returned to the bus stop. Unfortunately, I hadn't taken into account the lack of priority that the Ulsan transit authority places on the 507 route and waited close to three hours for the bus to arrive. However, all was not lost, as I was able to observe firsthand the life of people outside of the city, watching men and women working in their gardens and fields. Today, my destination was Jangsaengpo, the Ulsan port and marine park. Jangsaengpo is also the location of the Whale Museum, which I correctly assumed would be closed because of the chuseok holiday. I had a romanticized vision in my mind of capturing a picture of the sunset over the Ulsan harbor. Instead, what I found was an industrial park the likes of which I'd never seen before, heavily polluted air, and several fishermen lined up along the shore catching creatures that I can only hope aren't the same ones that end up in my grocery store:




























This, too, is Ulsan, and in a sense, a more authentic view of Ulsan than scenes of the Yeongnam Alps and Daewangam.