In Korea, whenever a national holiday comes, we meet relatives who come from near and far.  On that day, we cook and eat some food together and play some games.  Among all the Korean national holidays, there are two holidays that have made the deepest impression on me every year in Korea.
 
    The first holiday is Seollal, which comes on the first day of the year.  It is a traditional Korean festive day.  On that day, we make a New Year’s bow to relatives who are older, and after we bow, relatives give us some money as a New Years gift.  At that time, we wear Seolbeem, the costume for the New Year.  In ancient times, people wore the new clothes made by their mothers but, nowadays, we wear new clothes that we buy in a shop.  On that festive day, moreover, we play the Yut Game.  It is a stick game with Yut sticks, a Yut board, and four points made by a cast of Yut sticks.
 
    The other typical festival is Chusok, which comes on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month.  It is the Korean Thanksgiving Day.  On that day, we go to pay a visit to our ancestors graves with new things prepared in order to thank our ancestors for giving us new rice, fruits, and the other harvests.  On the day before that day, we cook Song-pyun that is a half moon-shaped rice cake stuffed with beans and flavored with pine needles.  We eat the cake and talk to each other.  In addition, on this day, instrumental music of peasants, farm music, is played by a group of farm band.  They walk around their village, playing some music.  The people in the village join with them and have a good time.
 
    All in all, Seollal and Chusok have remained in my mind as impressive holidays so long because they have such interesting customs as the New Years bow, Seolbeem, Yut Game, Song-pyun, and farm music.  For all these reasons, I can not forget them, and I look forward to the festive days coming every year.  What could be more fun than Seollal or Chusok?