From family songpyeon-making to traditional games and gugak performances, Chuseok comes to the heart of the city on Sept. 19
Ahead of Chuseok, Korea's biggest traditional holiday, a festival celebrating the harvest season will bring families together in the heart of the city to make songpyeon, pound rice cakes and enjoy Korean traditional culture firsthand.
The Nowon Cultural Center will hold its "2026 Chuseok Traditional Folk Festival" starting at 11:40 a.m. on Sept. 19.
Rather than a passive viewing event, the festival is designed as a hands-on cultural experience for children and parents. Together, they make songpyeon, pound rice cakes with wooden mallets, and try traditional games such as toho, a pitch-pot game, and jegichagi, a shuttlecock-kicking game. Along the way, they naturally learn the meaning and customs behind the holiday.
The festival's signature program is the "Family Songpyeon-Making Experience."
Thirty families, including elementary school-age children, will be selected on a first-come, first-served basis and take part across two sessions. Moon Hye-ja, an expert in traditional rice cakes, traditional sweets and beverages, will explain the origins of songpyeon and Chuseok customs and demonstrate how to make the rice cakes.
Participating families will then make their own dough and shape their own songpyeon using prepared ingredients. Three top families will be selected per session through judging, and the finished songpyeon will be steamed and given to participants.
The program goes beyond simple rice-cake making, incorporating cultural education on the origins of Chuseok and the meaning behind songpyeon. The Nowon Cultural Center is accepting applications for the songpyeon-making experience on a first-come, first-served basis through its website.
A traditional games zone will also be set up in the center's parking lot, open for families to enjoy freely. Programs include tteokmechigi, or rice-cake pounding, along with jegichagi, toho, ttakjichigi, or flipping paper tiles, and sabangchigi, a hopscotch-style game. These offer parents a nostalgic trip back to childhood and children a taste of a different kind of play.
In particular, tteokmechigi lets participants pound rice cake dough themselves using a traditional wooden mallet, experiencing the traditional rice-cake-making process before tasting and sharing the finished product together. A "Chuseok Exploration Map" stamp tour will also run alongside the games to keep children engaged as they try out multiple traditional activities.
There will also be plenty to watch, as tradition meets modern performance on a single stage — from gugak, or traditional Korean music, to shuffle dance. The festival opens with a performance by a traditional music troupe, followed by a lineup spanning hula, shuffle dance and song-and-dance numbers that bridge tradition and contemporary culture.
By pairing traditional cultural experiences with modern lifestyle performances, organizers aim to create a festival atmosphere that generations — from children to older adults — can enjoy together.
"Chuseok is one of our people's most representative holidays, a time when families and neighbors have long shared food and companionship to nurture a sense of community," said Oh Chi-jung, director of the Nowon Cultural Center. "For children, I hope this becomes a living classroom for traditional culture through hands-on experiences with songpyeon and traditional games, and for parents and grandparents, a chance to relive the memories of their own childhoods." He added, "Rather than explaining tradition in difficult terms, the greatest meaning of this festival lies in making, playing and enjoying it together, so that it naturally carries on to the next generation. I hope families will come to the cultural center together and take in the full spirit of Chuseok."
The Nowon Cultural Center is hosting and organizing the event, with support from the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Advance registration is required for the songpyeon-making experience, but the traditional games zone and performances are open to anyone without registration.
Applications can be submitted through the Nowon Cultural Center website. For more information, contact the center's administrative office.
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