Centennial Photo No. 78
● A photo of a round full moon hanging over ripening corn stalks
Under the full moon, the sorghum sways in the wind. Somewhere on those sorghum stalks, grasshoppers or crickets are probably resting.
To take that photo, the photographer would have laid down on his stomach on the grass. That would have been the only way to capture the full moon floating in the sky beyond the millet that was less than a meter high. He would have moved the camera around while lying on the grass and aiming at the sky to get the angle. With today’s cameras, you can just put your hand on the ground because you can bend the LDC plate behind the camera, but back then, it would have been like that. This is a Chuseok sketch photo that was published in the September 13, 1924 edition of the Dong-A Ilbo. Let’s take a look at the article.
◇No more, no less, just like the Chuseok in August. Today is Chuseok in August. We call this day Chuseok (秋夕) and also write it as Gabaeil (嘉俳日) or Gabaejeol (嘉排節). Chuseok is a word written in Chinese characters, and Gabae is a pronunciation of our old word in Chinese characters. I think Gabae or Hangawi is a corruption of Gwi. Just as we call the first full moon of the lunar year Daeboreum today, in the old days of Silla, the first full moon of the lunar year was called Hangawi.
◇During the Silla Dynasty, the 15th day of the 8th lunar month was a very important holiday. Even without the evidence from the Sui Book and the Old Book of Tang, I can say with certainty that this is true. In recent years, the four holidays of Seollal, Hansik, Chuseok, and Dongji were called the “Four Holidays” and every household would hold a memorial service for their ancestors. Nowadays, it is common not to celebrate Seollal and Dongji, and among Hansik and Chuseok, Chuseok is more popular. In rural farming households, Chuseok is considered better than Seollal. Nowadays, there are probably no noblemen in Seoul who would look for rice trees, but if there were such a nobleman, he would not take this lightly. I will stop rambling and write about the Silla Dynasty.
◇During the reign of King Yuri of Silla, the six divisions were divided into two groups, and the two princesses each became the leaders and took the women of the village to play Gilsamnaegi. This Gilsamnaegi started on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month (or the 15th day of the 7th lunar month) and on the 8th day of the 8th lunar month, they compared each other. The losing side prepared food and treated the winning side, and the two groups danced, sang, and had a great time.
● What does your Chuseok scene look like?
These days, newspapers don’t seem to be publishing photos of the full moon rising over the corn stalks. Perhaps it’s because the sight of people preparing for Chuseok is more interesting than the simple natural scenery. That’s why they now publish photos of people returning home or returning home from the opposite direction at Seoul Station, Yongsan Station, and the Express Bus Terminal. Or, they sometimes publish newspapers about the lines of citizens taking advantage of the long holiday to go on vacation overseas.
What does your Chuseok look like this year?
I have a question. When did we start creating the custom of visiting our hometowns for Chuseok or Seollal? Back when families and relatives lived together in the countryside, even if it was called a holiday, it would have been just gathering at the elders’ houses in the neighborhood. So, during the rapid industrialization process, did people who left the countryside and moved to the city create the custom of going to their hometowns in large numbers from Seoul for the holidays? I searched for past articles using the keyword “homecoming guests.”
The expression ‘New Year’s homecoming visitors’ was found in an article in the Dong-A Ilbo on December 27, 1939.
With only five days left in the year, the number of year-end travelers is on the rise like never before, and all stations across the nation are in a state of chaos.
The Gyeongbu and Gyeongui main lines are packed with every train, with most passengers standing. Irregular express trains and temporary express trains are also packed to capacity, leaving station staff busy with visitors returning home for the New Year.
This is an article about station workers at train stations across the country who were extremely busy with people trying to take trains to their hometowns at the end of the year in 1939, during the Japanese colonial period.
The expression ‘homecoming guest’ seems to have been used less frequently after that. In the Dong-A Ilbo DB, it appears again on September 8, 1957, about 20 years later.
Although it is a holiday that comes every year, it is always a new and enjoyable “Mid-Autumn Festival” for children who enjoy it. On this day, adults will be busy visiting ancestors’ graves and children will enjoy the day with their bodies and minds excited in their seasonal clothes.
▼Yesterday (the 14th of the lunar month), a day before this day, Seoul Station was packed with people returning home for Chuseok, and there was a long line at the ticket gate. Passengers crammed into each line of about ten connected passenger cars looked like bean sprouts.
▼According to Seoul Station statistics, the number of tickets sold on the 6th alone was about three times higher than on a weekday.
▼The fields were already ripe with five-grained rice and the sky was high and blue. On this day, the eve of the common people’s holiday, “August 18,” the streets of Seoul came alive with energy.
● The first photos of the full-scale homecoming procession were from the 1960s.
The ‘homecoming guests’ photos that appeared in the article actually began to appear in the late 1960s.
It is a forgotten landscape now, but I would like to share with you the landscape from 50 years ago when we were struggling to return to our hometown.
![Back in the days when I had to climb up to the bus cargo compartment to go home [청계천 옆 사진관]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/09/13/130042491.1.jpg "Back in the days when I had to climb up to the bus cargo compartment to go home [청계천 옆 사진관]")
The photographs of holidaymakers from the late 1960s symbolically show the social changes of the time. This was a time when rapid industrialization led to a large-scale rural exodus, and many people moved to the city to make a living. People working in the city tried to return to their hometowns and reunite with their families during the holidays, and as a result, a large-scale homecoming procession took place every year. As you can see from the photographs, it was not just a procession; the expression “homecoming war” is by no means an exaggeration.
When big holidays like Seollal and Chuseok came around, transportation was extremely insufficient, and people who wanted to go to their hometowns had to wait a long time at train stations or bus terminals, fighting a war to get home. Was it because they couldn’t get train tickets? There were also scenes of people hanging on to the doors or roofs of trains to get home. In this way, industrialization and urbanization changed people’s lifestyles, and going home was not just a process of moving, but an arduous journey.
Now, with the improvement of transportation infrastructure and the increase in the number of automobiles, the dramatic homecoming wars of the past have disappeared, but the homecoming processions of that time are an important record that contains traces of our country’s economic development. The sight of people desperately lining up at every train station to board the train to their hometown and struggling to get tickets is now a faint memory, but the earnest desire for hometown at that time still remains in our hearts.
Today, we looked back at the full moon photos from Chuseok 100 years ago and the homecoming scenes from the 1960s and 1970s. I hope you have a bountiful Chuseok, recalling the arduous journeys of that time and the now-forgotten scenes of the homecoming war.
Do you remember the holiday scenes of those days? I wonder if anyone can share stories of long journeys back home or of times when transportation was scarce.
2024-09-16 02:43:23