COVID-19 Hampered South Korea’s Chuseok Holiday — But Daughters-In-Law Got A Break

The mid-autumn harvest festival of Chuseok is one of South Korea’s biggest holidays. Families typically return to their hometowns to perform ancestral rites, preparing elaborate feasts and visiting and tidying their ancestors’ burial grounds. It is a holiday deeply rooted in tradition. On the morning of Chuseok, children wear traditional bright, flowing silk hanbok garments and bow to their elders. Dishes of rice cakes, fruits, vegetables, fish and liquor are all laid across a table as offerings to the ancestors. For many married women, though, the tradition means not getting much of a holiday at all. They are expected to travel to their in-laws’ celebrations — and spend the entire holiday cleaning and cooking. It’s far from a relaxing experience, and is believed by some experts to be a factor in post-holiday spikes in divorce. But this year’s Chuseok holiday, which fell on Oct. 1 and was celebrated from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, marked a change from the past. Due to the coronavirus, the