The once-a-year national festival of Koreans, Chuseok is finally back in year 2021! Chuseok is celebrated to express our gratitude and appreciation to our families, friends and colleagues! Therefore, Chuseok gift culture is very common in the Korean community.
What is ‘Chuseok Festival’ : Chuseok (추석) is another great Korean holidays after Seollal in the beginning of the year. It is originated from a Harvest Festival in celebrating a great harvest of their agriculture after the summer since Silla Dynasty (57 BC). Modern Koreans are now celebrating by visiting their hometown to reunite with the family and perform ancestral memorial rites (Charye) at home.
In this post, we are going to explore what gifts do Koreans often prefer during the Chuseok festival!
Before you buy!
It’s not so easy to choose an ‘appropriate gift’ during the Chuseok festival. It requires much more thinking before you make the purchase! Before you buy the gift, here are some considerations you should take first:
- The Gift Receiver: This is the most important factor because it decides want kind of gifts you should choose for the person. For instance, if you buying for your parents, maybe health products like supplement might be a good choice.
- Your budget: The budget should be depending on ‘how important’ the receiver is to you. As it’s a thanksgiving day, you can choose a more expensive gifts to your parents/parents-in-law to show your sincerity and gratitude. (but well, it still depends. We should not so materialistic somehow!)
- Packaging do matters: Koreans care a lot about the beauty of the products in terms of its packaging. It’s not so appropriate (or polite) to give the gifts without any ‘wrapping’. Present paper might work best, but many Korean just purchase products which are nicely wrapped already specially for Chuseok.
Gifts for Chuseok in Korea
Cash
Nothing is more valuable than just cash! Some people do give cash during Chuseok to show appreciation. However, this is not appropriate for all people. You may only consider giving cash to your own parents or people you close with.
Luncheon Meat
It’s quite strange for me when I learnt that SPAM, which is a brand of ham/luncheon meat, is the top choice of Koreans in giving them as Chuseok gifts! There will be all sort of different Chuseok Gift Set from SPAM in the market, and I think I will be happy to receive that. No one will hate luncheon meat!
Self Care Products
It’s very common for Koreans to choose self care beauty products as gifts for their friends and family in Chuseok. As Koreans take serious care about their hygiene and beauty, these daily necessities like shampoo, toothbrush, cosmetics can be a great Chuseok gifts that widely available in the market.
‘Comfort’ Products
Something that brings comfort and relieve stress like massage chairs and anything related to body and health are also among the most common Chuseok gifts for Koreans. This can be a good choice for your ‘bosses’ or seniors in the workplace. (yes, it’s important to impress your boss in Chuseok as well, to show your gratitude towards their guidance)
Fruits
Nothing will go wrong with ‘premium fresh fruits’ as Chuseok gifts for all characters and seniority of people. It is considered the most traditional Chuseok gifts that were practiced since before. In major supermarket and shopping platform, you can find all sorts of fruit gift set with different budget range.
MyDaehan 🍂 