Ain't going home

By Park Moo-jong

If not for the stubborn COVID-19 pandemic, people could have been jubilant as is the case every year for their traditional Chuseok holiday that begins today through Sunday for a rare five-day run this year

The term "Chuseok" may be unfamiliar to foreigners, except for those who are versed somewhat in Koreans' way of life and unique culture.

Chuseok, or harvest full moon festival Aug. 15 on lunar calendar (Oct. 1 this year) is one of the nation's two largest and widely celebrated holidays, along with "Seollal" or Lunar New Year's Day.

Traditionally, we, Koreans, call Chuseok (秋夕: autumnal eve) "Hangawi" (한가위: "han" means great and "gawi" middle, and together they imply a great day in the middle of the ninth lunar month).

The richness and abundant nature of this harvest full moon day is described in ordinary people's wishes: "If only the 365 days of the year were like Hangawi...."

As noted above, Chuseok used to be compared to Thanksgiving Day, which falls on the fourth Thursday of November in the U.S., as they are both national holidays intended to celebrate the fall harvest when people travel to visit family and enjoy plenty of food with the season's new produce.

But that's where the similarity ends. Koreans perform "charye," one of the most important family rituals to honor ancestors, in the morning in front of a low dining table on which a variety of dishes featuring the season's new fruits are laid out.

Koreans, along with visiting hometowns and holding charye, pay homage at the graves of their ancestors, thanking them for the good harvest, while Westerners give thanks to God for the good things that have happened to them during the year.

Alas, this year's holidays are quite different from the past. The unyielding coronavirus is changing the tradition, forcing people to stay home under the government's tough Level 2 social distancing prevention measures.

The government has requested citizens to minimize travel during the holidays, especially considering that those going to their hometowns in rural districts mostly live in the mega city of Seoul where virus infections are still high, even scrapping a years-long policy of no highway tolls for the holiday period.

Last year alone, more than 30 million people hit the road with gifts in hand for their loved ones, mostly for parents, some of whom they have not seen for months or maybe even years.

However, a poll showed that three in four of Seoul residents don't have any plan to visit their hometown or travel long distances this year, staying safe at home during the Chuseok holiday so as not to fall victim to the virus.

While many have made up their minds not to visit their parents and relatives, most popular tourist destinations are, ironically, crowded with comparatively young people who "can't" go abroad due to the virus during the five-day holiday.

Pouring cold water on the festive mood along with the coronavirus blues is the difficult economic situation, especially for self-employed people, including merchants at traditional markets, following the sharp decrease in the number of consumers due to social-distancing.

The government's obscure attitude toward North Korea's fatal shooting of a South Korean fisheries official and Kim Jung-un's bizarre apology for the brutal killing is also throwing a wet blanket on the already blue festival mood.

We have to visit our elderly relatives, ancestors' graves and pay homage with rituals but as one patriotic Korean citizen posted in an online petition on the presidential office website, "Won't our ancestors be sad if their offspring contract coronavirus during their visit?"

Yet, Chuseok comes as a breath of fresh air for all of us. Though we are under constraints, we have some good ways to tide over the difficult circumstances, including video calls to help us have virtual get-togethers with our relatives far away.

What a celebration! We have as many as five days to be free from work until Sunday. There are lots of things to do at home to beat the coronavirus blues and safeguard ourselves from COVID-19.

Music can be an effective tool to enrich your holidays at home. Chuseok is a full moon day. There are so many nice classical compositions and pop songs about the moon on YouTube.

Recommended are Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770-1827) "Moonlight Sonata," for piano ― this year marks the 250th anniversary of the German composer's birth ― Antonin Dvorak's (1841-1904) "Song to the Moon" from the opera "Rusalka," and Claude Debussy's (1862-1918) "Clair de Lune (Light of the Moon)," to name a few.

As for pop songs, there are "Fly Me to the Moon" by Frank Sinatra, "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's," by Audrey Hepburn, "Moon Shadow" by Cat Stevens and "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival, etcetera. Of course, I am not talking about President Moon.

In particular, for those who are not homebound, I recommend "Going Home," a gospel adaptation of the second movement of Dvorak's "The New World Symphony," recorded in 1958 by legendary baritone Paul Robeson and more recently by Norwegian singer Sissel.

How the holiday unfolds depends on what we imagine this traditionally celebrated holiday will be like. Let's forget the virus, at least for five days, while staying safe at home. Happy Chuseok!

Park Moo-jong (emjei29@gmail.com) is a standing adviser of The Korea Times. He served as the president-publisher of the nation's first English daily newspaper from 2004 to 2014 after working as a reporter since 1974.