Chuseok Holiday—An Incredibly Beautiful Day

Chuseok. The biggest holiday in Korea, I believe. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but Koreans tell me it’s sort of like their version of Thanksgiving. For Chuseok, Everybody goes to their hometown and visits their families for the three days off that pretty much everyone gets off. (Too bad this year’s fell on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!) Because everybody decides to travel home, highway traffic in South Korea is hectic, and packed during this weekend. I didn’t leave Daejeon this weekend. But I bet half of Daejeon left Daejeon! (Imagine half of Seoul leaving Seoul!)

I predicted it, and I was right. It was an incredibly clear and beautiful weekend in Daejeon! Since tons of people were heading out of town, and pretty much most of the industry shut down, there was no smog at all in Daejeon. Compare the pics of a typical (this one’s actually a bad day) day and Chuseok.

These pictures are both at approximately the same time of day (in the later morning), and at the same place. What a difference!

Also notice in the second picture (above), all the cars on the left, bumper to bumper to get onto the expressway, whereas a normal street over on the right is empty.

Still not convinced?! “What is he trying to convince me of?” you ask? That’s besides the point!

That’s usually a busy intersection, with cars bustling and people walking. Not today.

For the Holiday on Friday, after going to the zoo, we went to Pastor Mike’s parent’s-in-law to hang out and eat! On Saturday, we went to the house of a family from our church and did the same thing! And on Sunday, we had church and especially gave thanks to the Lord for all of His goodness towards us (obviously it wasn’t the only time we were giving thanks, haha)! It’s so important to simply remember that God is good! No matter what sorts of things happen. He isn’t an evil God. He’s good, just, and loving, and has some purpose or plan in all things.

Here’s some of the fun time we had eating lunch on Sunday that weekend.