Delhi’s festive mood makes room for Korean harvest festival Chuseok

As the Capital readies to get into its festive groove, Delhi's K-culture enthusiasts recently gathered to celebrate Chuseok, Korea’s harvest festival.

As Delhi gets into its festive mood, K-culture enthusiasts gathered at the Korean Cultural Centre India (KCCI) recently, to celebrate Korea’s harvest festival, Chuseok. What followed was a hands-on experience of everything that the Korean culture has to offer besides its well known K-pop.

Delhi's K-culture fanatics celebrated Korea's harvest festival, Chuseok by participating in traditional Korean games and interactive activities.

Visitors followed the Hanguel calligraphy tradition by hanging sheets featuring their wishes, holding onto the belief that these will get fulfilled.

Attending the event, Anushka Pal, a 17-year-old student said, “I loved the Hangeul calligraphy session and writing down my wishes! This artistic practice of writing the Korean alphabet with soft brush pens or ink is inspired by the Korean tradition of making wishes under the full moon. It reminded me of growing up seeing people in India write down their wishes or pray during festivals. I’ve always found that idea comforting: putting a wish into words and having faith in it.”

Some participants even played Jegichagi, which is a traditional Korean game where players kick a small shuttlecock-like object, called a jegi, into the air to keep it off the ground.

Another city-based student, Naina, 21, told us: “I’m a fan of K-pop music and K-food, but didn’t know how rich Korean culture is beyond that. What has stunned me are the similarities between Korean and Indian culture. I thoroughly enjoyed playing jegichagi, which is very similar to India’s chungi game, where we use our feet to keep an object from touching the ground. And the foodie in me loved trying Songpyeon — a Korean rice cake that looks like a gujiya and tastes like panjiri."

Wearing Hanbok, Korea’s traditional attire, some visitors tried their hands at playing Tuho, a game of throwing arrows into a narrow-necked jar.

Sharing her experience, Nandini Shael, a 22-year-old homemaker said, “I like dressing up for festivals. For our Indian festivals, we have started shifting towards fusion clothes a bit. But I like the fact that beyond Korean pop culture, there’s a traditional side as well, where people wear traditional Korean dresses. I, too, wore the comfy and elegant Hanbok to feel like I’m in a K-drama myself!”

Story by Anshita Jain

For more, follow @htcity.delhijunction