On Chuseok morning, families gather and prepare a beautiful table of food. Everything comes from the harvest: freshly picked apples, pears, chestnuts, jujubes, and grains. Children wear their best clothes, and grandparents tell stories about when they were small. Then everyone shares the meal.
The signature food of Chuseok is songpyeon (靻№幐) - small, soft, half-moon-shaped rice cakes stuffed with sweet sesame seeds, beans or chestnuts. Children help to shape them: a pinch of rice dough, a spoonful of filling, fold and press into a little crescent moon. Whichever child shapes the prettiest songpyeon, the old saying goes, will grow up to have beautiful children of their own.
Chuseok also celebrates the full moon. The night sky in late summer can be huge and bright, and Korean families spend time looking up at it. Children make wishes to the harvest moon. Some places put on circle dances called ganggangsullae, where women hold hands and dance under the moonlight in a great spinning ring.
Because so many families travel home for Chuseok, all of South Korea's roads, trains and aeroplanes get extra-busy. The country basically pauses for three days. Schools close. Cities go quiet. Then on the fourth day, everyone comes back, full of songpyeon and family stories.