Understanding Chuseok: The Significance of Korea’s Harvest Moon Festival

If you find yourself in Korea in September, the rhythm of the country changes. The frantic pace of Seoul’s subway stations, usually a blur of moving backpacks and scrolling smartphones, suddenly shifts. The streets grow quiet, shop shutters pull down, and the highways turn into massive, sluggish rivers of brake lights. This is the lead-up to Chuseok, often described by outsiders as a harvest festival, but felt by those living here as a total systemic pause.