POSTECH international community members and their families gathered at the Student Union on Wednesday, September 27 to celebrate the Korean thanksgiving, also known as Chuseok, in true Korean fashion with festivity. The event, organized by POSTECH International Relations and International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS), gave the POSTECH international community an opportunity to better understand Korean traditions and experience Chuseok.

More than 180 participants attended the event, where they got to dress up in traditional Korean attire called Hanbok and had dinner followed by Songpyeon, the signature rice cake for Chuseok.

Stephanie Broaden, an exchange student from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, shared that she greatly enjoyed the event and the opportunity to learn about the traditions surrounding Chuseok.

“The Chuseok Celebration kindly organized by ISSS was a wonderful introduction to Korean traditions,” said another attendee, Aizhan Ismukhanova. She is a master’s student from Kazakhstan who has just started her degree program in Chemical Engineering at POSTECH. “The idea of wearing Korean traditional clothes, Hanbok, was the most intriguing and beautiful part of the evening. And certainly, I was very excited to try Songpyeon, the rice cake that symbolizes Chuseok.”

Aizhan was glad that the Chuseok holiday started with such a friendly and warm celebration. Mingling with other POSTECH international members from all around the world, she felt that she was a member of a big international family, especially more significant since Chuseok is the time of the year when the whole family gathers.