Today is chusok (추석) or Moon Festival. I'm in Korea for research and my trip overlaps with the holiday. Pretty much everything is shut down for the day. Yesterday massive rainfall came to Seoul and the streets flooded badly.
Families gather with paternal relatives at the home of the senior male. For most families the main event today is ancestor worship or jesa (제사). Today we had jesa at 9am. The women prepared most of the food the day before, or earlier. This time we set out food for six deceased people: the patriarch's parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents (all paternal only, of course). These slips of paper are written for them, and are burned after the ceremony.
The food is arranged so that when the ancestors visit, they start their meal from the back of the table with the main courses. Here they are offered pork and rice cakes -- at new year, they get rice cake soup instead of rice cake. Toward the front are the desserts, including apples, jujubes, and other snacks. There is also alcohol.
The men lead the ceremony, which consists mostly of bowing in series of twos and threes. Alcohol is offered to the ancestors. As a son-in-law I have no official place in this ceremony but I am invited to offer my greetings to the ancestors. The whole ceremony is done in five minutes. The meal that follows is much longer.
Apparently, the rituals have become simplified over the years. In the past, people spent some time talking about each of the ancestors, but we skipped that. Still, it requires knowledge about what foods to prepare (and energy to prepare them!), how to arrange them, and what procedures to follow. How much of this tradition will the next generation maintain?
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