2027 Chuseok

Chuseok, also called Hangawi, is the Korean harvest festival on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month — between early September and early October — and is the country's biggest holiday. Families gather to hold charye, a memorial rite offering freshly harvested food to ancestors, and visit family graves. The signature food is songpyeon, half-moon rice cakes filled with sesame, beans or chestnuts and steamed over pine needles, served alongside taro soup and savoury pancakes (jeon); in the evening people watch the full moon and make a wish, and traditional games such as ssireum wrestling and the ganggangsullae circle dance are staged. The day before and after are also public holidays, with a substitute day added when the break overlaps a weekend. Gift sets go on sale and train tickets are released about a month in advance, and expressways are heavily congested, so plan travel early. This countdown ticks to midnight Korea Standard Time on Chuseok, based on the Korean lunar calendar.