Sep 21, 2021
Chuseok 2021
This Doodle’s Key Themes
Today’s Doodle, illustrated by Seoul, South Korea-based guest artist Kim Jam, celebrates Chuseok, a three-day, harvest festival observed across the Korean peninsula. As one of the three most important holidays on the Korean lunar calendar, Chuseok is a time for families to come together and show gratitude for a fruitful harvest with traditional food, stories, and games.
Chuseok is also known in Korean as Hangawi, with “han” meaning “large” and “gawi” meaning “middle,” referring to a big celebration in the middle of the month! The date for this holiday, the middle of the 8th lunar month, was chosen to align with the harvest moon, which is the largest full moon of the year. Families traditionally start the day’s festivities with a memorial service known as charye which commemorates their ancestral heritage with enough songpyeon (half-moon rice cakes) for everyone to enjoy.
To honor an abundant harvest, holiday activities are livened with vibrant traditions of Korean entertainment. Samulnori (a percussion quartet) drums up the sounds for talchum (a mask dance) and ganggangsullae (an ancient circle dance) while celebrants play Chuseok games such as yutnori (a board game using four wooden sticks), and neolttwigi (standing seesaw).
Happy Chuseok, Korea!
Guest Artist Q&A with Kim Jam
Today’s Doodle was illustrated by Seoul, South Korea-based guest artist Kim Jam. Below, she shares her thoughts behind the making of this Doodle:
Q: What was your creative process for this Doodle artwork? (ie. research, artistic style or medium)?
A: I thought about what objects come to mind when I think of Chuseok.It would be fun to see the Google logo while people in traditional hanbok and rabbit characters enjoying objects.I sketched the ideas I thought of and tried a more suitable combination to complete the doodle.
Q: Did you draw inspiration from anything in particular for this Doodle? Are there specific elements of the artwork that have symbolic meaning?
A: I wanted to express Korean Chuseok traditionally and warmly.I hope you can enjoy the Chuseok atmosphere through the large full moon and chestnuts, pears, persimmons, kite flying, and people wearing hanbok that symbolize Chuseok. It's sad that we can't be close to each other now because of COVID-19, but I hope you can feel the rich atmosphere of Chuseok after watching this illustration.
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