Chuseok, otherwise known as Hangawi, is one of the biggest holidays in Korea. Basically, the meaning of Chuseok is to collect grain in advance to offer sacrifices to ancestors and pray for a good harvest. As a celebration of the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and share a feast of Korean traditional food such as songpyeon, yakgwa, fruits like Asian pear and hallabong, and rice wines such as sindoju and dongdongju. People also wear hanboks, the traditional dress of Korea.
There are two major traditions related to Chuseok: Charye, and Seongmyo, which is usually accompanied by Beolcho. Another major custom is to prepare the family's ancestors their favorite meals as an offering.
During Chuseok, people set a table for their ancestors. Table includes Jeon, various fruits, Dduk, alcohol, fish, stew, and vegetables.
Charye is a ceremony commonly practiced in East Asia. Charye is a memorial to the ancestors. Ancestor worship has significantly changed in recent years. These days it is common to hold ancestor rituals up to only two generations of ancestors, and in some cases, people only hold rituals for their dead parents. In addition, more people are holding rituals in the evening, not after midnight.
Seongmyo refers to visiting ancestral graves on major traditional holidays such as Chuseok and Beolcho is a practice where family members cut weeds and tidy up the area surrounding their ancestral graves, and the paths to them before Chuseok.