Chuseok

In the beginning of October Koreans celebrate one of their major holidays, Chuseok. Chuseok is sometimes called 'Korean Thanksgiving' by foreigners, which is somewhat accurate since it is a holiday about the harvest and family. Of course, it is quite a bit different than American or Canadian Thanksgiving. There's no turkey (food isn't really emphasized, at least from what we saw) and instead of telling what you are thankful for, you bow to your parents and grandparents. They also mow the grass above their ancestor's graves during the two week period preceding the holiday. Koreans wear hanboks, their traditional outfits, to mark the occasion.

At ECC on the day before Chuseok we loaded the kindergarten kids onto buses and took them a couple kilometers to a private house where they were taught the proper way to prostate themselves before their elders. Here's Ellen demonstrating the proper form for girls:
...and Neal demonstrating the bow for boys:
The day also happened to be Military Day, so there were dozens of helicopters flying in formation towards their patriotic demonstration of military might. I saw over 30 helicopters in one group. We heard the helicopters occasionally as we learned to bow. Will and I also participated since the husbands of some of our coworkers lent us their hanboks.
After bowing we went downstairs for tea and ricecakes:
The children then played games that strongly resembled ring around the rosy and hackysack.
Finally, the teachers were taken downstairs for our own tea ceremony before we all headed back to work.
There's lots more pictures of kindergarteners looking adorable here.