The Korean Full Moon Festival

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at how Chusuk is a Korean festival celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth lunar moon and how, during this festival, Koreans offer produce from the harvest as a token of gratitude to their ancestors for providing them with good fortune. It explores how the Chusuk festival represents many aspects of Korean culture and serves a social and a community function. It also shows how the essential purpose of the festival still remains embedded in the ancient culture of Shamanism and how its central function is to ensure, though respect and worship, the success of the next harvest.

Outline
Introduction
Origins
Shamanism and Ancestor Worship
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The most important aspect to consider when trying to understand ancestor worship and its relationship to Shamanism in Korean culture, is the emphasis on the presence of those who have died in the world of the living. Shamanism was, and in some cases still is, an ancient form of religious belief and practice which believes that there are other dimensions to this world which are part of or co-present with our ordinary lives. The Shaman or "priest" is the one who can enter these different "worlds" and who can perform acts of healing in the state of trance. All Shamanic traditions emphasized that the ancestors were present and even unseen participants in the ordinary world."

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