Mountain Grave Visiting

During Chu-seok (Koreans Thanksgiving or Harvest season. Chinese celebrates Mooncake festival in same day), there is a custom to visit ancestral graves to pray to them . My in-laws were some of the many who went back to their old hometown before the holidays to visit the graves; we went few days ahead to avoid the traffic of all the other Koreans to return to their own hometown.


I have to say that it was a tedious visit as the graves were scattered in different mountains. It was explained to me that the more effort you put in, the more sincere it is to the ancestors and they will then bestow good luck for the new year. Whatever the reasons are, it was an experience for me in the sense of culture and mountain trekking.

We drove up for 3.5 hours to the hometown, climbed 5 mountains, ate the prayers' snacks after sending some to the Mountain God (you throw the snacks to the mountains to show respect you are in their territory).

I tried to take some pictures of each mountain we climbed but failed to take pictures of the last 2 mountains. It was a very tiring and sincere work to show regards to the ancestors...