ChuseokKorean Thanksgiving · 추석 · Hangawi

Korea's autumn harvest festival — three days of family gatherings, ancestral rites, and the year's biggest domestic travel surge.

Upcoming dates

15th day of the 8th lunar month — falls between mid-September and early October. The cluster is the eve, Chuseok proper, and the day after.

Year	Date
2026	Thu, Sep 24, 2026 → Sat, Sep 26, 2026 Thu–Sat. Chuseok proper Sept 25 (lunar 8/15).
2027	Tue, Sep 14, 2027 → Thu, Sep 16, 2027 Tue–Thu. Chuseok proper Sept 15.
2028	Mon, Oct 2, 2028 → Wed, Oct 4, 2028 Mon–Wed. Stacks with National Foundation Day Oct 3.
2029	Fri, Sep 21, 2029 → Mon, Sep 24, 2029 Fri–Mon. Substitute Sept 24 covers the weekend.
2030	Wed, Sep 11, 2030 → Fri, Sep 13, 2030 Wed–Fri. Chuseok proper Sept 12.

What it is

Chuseok (추석), also written Hangawi (한가위), is South Korea's harvest moon festival and the country's most important traditional holiday alongside Seollal. Falling on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month — a full-moon date that drifts between mid-September and early October — it has been observed since the Three Kingdoms era as a thanksgiving for the year's harvest.

The holiday is a three-day cluster: the day before Chuseok (eve), Chuseok proper, and the day after. Families travel back to their ancestral hometowns to perform charye (차례), an ancestor-honouring rite at which seasonal foods including songpyeon (송편, half-moon rice cakes) are offered. After the rite, generations gather for a long midday meal; many visit family graves to perform seongmyo (성묘) and tend the burial mounds.

Because virtually the entire country attempts to leave the Seoul metropolitan area at the same time, Chuseok produces the year's two heaviest traffic days — typically the eve and the day after — with intercity drives that normally take three hours stretching to nine or more. KTX seats sell out the moment the booking window opens, usually about a month ahead.

In recent years the cluster has frequently been extended by a substitute holiday (대체공휴일) when one of the three days falls on a Sunday or overlaps with another holiday, and by occasional designated "temporary public holidays" that bundle a weekend onto either side. Together these can produce 5–9 day breaks — a major reason Chuseok is the most efficient outbound-travel window of the year for Korean workers, alongside Seollal.

Commercial culture has shifted with younger Koreans: outbound flights to Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand sell out in the same booking-window crush as KTX seats, and "holiday avoidance" — staying in Seoul while families travel, or travelling abroad in lieu of the hometown visit — is increasingly common.

What's open, what's closed

Closed

Banks, government offices, and schools — all three days
Most large corporate offices and small businesses
Many independent restaurants, cafés, and shops in residential neighbourhoods
Traditional markets in smaller cities (Seoul markets stay open in patches)

Open

Major department stores and shopping malls (Shinsegae, Lotte, Hyundai) — usually open all three days
Convenience stores (CU, GS25, 7-Eleven) and large supermarkets — often shortened hours
Public transit, taxis, and ride-hail — full service, with surcharges and waits
Tourist attractions in Seoul, Busan, Jeju (palaces, museums) — many waive entry fees during Chuseok
Hospitals and emergency clinics on the rotating Chuseok duty-roster system

Travel tips

If you're inside Korea, do not drive on the eve or the day after — both are reliably the worst traffic days of the year. KTX tickets open about a month out and sell out in minutes; set a calendar alarm for the booking window. If you can't get a seat, intercity buses release tickets on a similar schedule. Seoul itself empties out, so it can be a rare quiet weekend in the city — palaces, hiking trails, and major museums are uncrowded and several waive admission for the holiday. For outbound travel, book 2–3 months ahead; flights to Tokyo, Osaka, Da Nang, and Bangkok sell out earlier than any other window of the year. Foreign visitors landing during Chuseok should expect closed neighbourhood restaurants and rely on department-store food halls and hotel dining instead.