Family Gathering in Korea (September 2018)

During my recent trip to Korea, one of two major Korean festivals occurred: Chusok or Hangawi. Koreans celebrate Chusok on the eighth full moon in the Lunar Calendar. It coincides with the harvest time of the year.

Chusok is a 3-4 day holiday during which time people visit their parents and relatives.

We decided to make a trip to one of the hot springs resorts. We chose Kensington Dogo. One of the reasons to choose this one was to avoid long travel time because the highways become jammed with cars.

Kensington is a brand name for E-Land's hospitality business. It marks with quality and classy style. So I had an expectation. But not Kensington Dogo. First, this facility must have been purchased recently from Glory Condo, an old-fashioned style condo network. The exterior looked alright, but the interior was of poor quality and the designs were outdated. It was disappointing, but we still enjoyed our time together

Monday September 24 was officially the Chusok. So in the morning, we had a commemorative service reflecting on our father who passed two years ago and also two parents of my younger sister's husband who have passed to be with the Lord in recent years. We all should be grateful for our parents because without them we would not even exist now. Besides, their sacrificial love, including tough love, have shaped us to be who we are now. We have inherited from our father strong will, determination, discipline, ability to make breakthrough during crisis.

Chusok is known for a lot of foods, probably more than Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. People eat Songpyon, but a lot of veggies in all kinds of names. My younger sister, Minsook, prepared a lot of foods and our mom also brought a lot of veggies. The morning breakfast table was glamorous and overwhelming. We all enjoyed the foods thoroughly.
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We ended up spending a lot of time playing Korean cards, called Hwatu or flower battle. We giggled and laughed a lot.

We took time and strolled around the area. Koreans are good at creating new words. At one location, there was a sign of Glamping or Glamorous Camping. I suppose it means luxurious camping.

Nearby, there were large rice fields where rice was ripe and getting ready for harvest. It has been a long while since I saw this golden rice fields.
Ripe rice field...

Near the condominium, there was a structure called LOVE. This four-letter word is surely mysterious to a lot of people, meaning differently. I was thinking of God's unceasing and overflowing love, agape, along with eros, phileo and epicuros. Without having to deeper with high level love, I felt the love from my family: my mother and my siblings and their extended family. Definitely, love signifies the driving engine for our meaningful life on earth.

I was deeply grateful for the opportunity to spend time together with my family over this year's Chusok. It was more meaningful because my mom reminded me that it has been 40 years since we had this time together over Chusok. - Jeffrey