Traditions
Arts, festivals, practices and cultural traditions.
Chuseok
Major Korean harvest festival celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, usually in September or October. Often compared to American Thanksgiving, Chuseok is one of Korea's two main holidays (alongside Seollal). Families gather to honor ancestors during the charye ritual, share songpyeon (half-moon rice cakes), and visit family graves. It is a three-day national holiday when all of Korea mobilizes for family reunions.
Spring Festival (Chinese New Year)
The largest traditional Chinese festival, celebrating the start of the lunar calendar and marking the arrival of Chinese New Year. Celebrated over a 15-day period culminating in the Lantern Festival, it is marked by family reunions, red envelopes (hongbao) containing money, fireworks, lion and dragon dances, and traditional feasts. The Spring Festival generates the largest annual human migration in the world (chunyun), with hundreds of millions of Chinese traveling home to reunite with family.
Hanami
Ancient Japanese tradition of viewing cherry blossoms (sakura) in spring, generally from late March to early May depending on the region. Families, friends, and colleagues gather under blooming trees for picnics, sake drinking, and celebrating the fleeting beauty of nature, a philosophical concept called mono no aware. Hanami has been deeply rooted in Japanese culture for over a thousand years and attracts millions of visitors to Japan each year.