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Major Korean Holiday Alert: Chuseok

By Heejeong Haas | September 11, 2007

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I hardly can believe that it is already mid September. Hope you all enjoyed summer. I mostly stayed in town in August as all my projects took place in Austin, and I was quite a happy camper. I was able to spend a good amount of time for “pampering” myself. I visited my chiropractor’s office often which relieved my chronic back pain a great deal, went to the gym regularly, and read some fiction—nothing is like getting lost in the world of books.


About 2 weeks ago, I also found out that one of my clients, Paul Young, had this exciting blog about product management and marketing, “Product Beautiful”. I worked with him last year for their communication effort with a Korean manufacturer and developer. I was completely immersed soon after I started reading his blog as he is not only a good writer but also he provides great and expert insight on product management and marketing.


I had the honor to be introduced in his blog; however he didn’t forget to mention about my notorious “balcony” story. It seems that many of my readers get amused by the balcony story more than anything else. If I only knew that my clumsiness would get more readers and entertain them a great deal, I would’ve posted all of my notorious clumsy accidents sooner starting from how often I lock myself out of my own car. Some of my clients who read the story sometimes text me or email me saying “do you want me to call the front desk?” or “hey, I’m sending XXX to a training session to unlock a deadbolt just in case you have to travel with him next time.” Yeah, you know who you are!

In September, I find myself often longing to look at the autumn sky of Korea. However, the sky of Austin serves me very well too. There is a major national holiday Chuseok in Korea from September 24-26. It is as big as Thanksgiving or Christmas. The whole country enters the “great migration” as people travel to their hometowns. An ever-busy and complicated city like Seoul becomes a complete ghost city, and except for 2 times in a year, you can never witness Seoul ever getting empty like that.

Your business partners will greatly appreciate if you can send them a holiday wish for their Chuseok. Speaking of Chuseok, now my mouth is getting watery. Although Chuseok dishes do not involve turkey at all, I find them far better for me and diverse than any holiday food in America. After all, I was born and raised for more than 2 decades in Korea. The food speaks the culture, and Korean culture is deeply embedded in me.

I will be cooking some delicious Korean dishes although I will never be able to make anything like my mother. :-)

 

All the best,

Heejeong Haas

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Topics: Korean Holiday |

One Response to “Major Korean Holiday Alert: Chuseok”

  1. nora Says:
    August 21st, 2008 at 4:41 am

    I like this blog. I am a filipino and really curious about Korean cultures and practices.This is a great opportunity to get to know them well.This prevents culture conflicts and it can gain respect for every korean individual.

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