Chuseok 2027 in South Korea: dates, what closes and how to travel

The 2027 dates: Tuesday to Thursday

Chuseok falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, and the holiday covers that day and the days either side. The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute's 2027 calendar gives the Chuseok holiday as Tuesday 14 to Thursday 16 September, so Chuseok Day is Wednesday 15 September. It is the same full moon that Chinese communities across Asia celebrate as the Mid-Autumn Festival; our Mid-Autumn Festival guide compares the other countries.

Because the holiday falls mid-week, no substitute day is added and Friday 17 September is a normal working day. The rhythm of the week is predictable:

The Korea Tourism Organization counts Chuseok among the few holidays whose date moves each year: it fell on 25 September in 2026 and will be on 15 September in 2027. Only the holiday calendar the government announces each year is final, and the institute's calendar page links to it.

Songpyeon, ancestral tables and circle dances

Chuseok is a thanksgiving for the harvest. The Korea Tourism Organization describes families gathering to hold charye, a memorial rite with food offered to the ancestors, and visiting the family graves, and millions of Koreans travel home to do it. For a visitor, the food and public programmes are the easiest way into the festival.

The signature food is songpyeon: half-moon rice cakes filled with soybeans, sesame seeds or red beans and steamed on a bed of pine needles, which gives them a nutty taste and a light scent. KTO also lists jeon (meat, vegetables or seafood dipped in egg and pan-fried), japchae (glass noodles stir-fried with vegetables) and yakgwa, a honey and ginger biscuit, and says you will find them at traditional markets, rice-cake shops and Korean restaurants in the days before the holiday.

The old games come out too. Ganggangsullae, a circle dance sung under the full moon, ssireum wrestling and talchum mask dance are all on UNESCO's intangible heritage list, and KTO points visitors to hands-on programmes at palaces, museums and local festivals over the holiday.

What closes, and what stays open

KTO's Chuseok travel guide is plain about it: many department stores, shopping malls and restaurants close on Chuseok Day or for part of the holiday, while convenience stores and shops near tourist attractions often stay open. Banks and offices close on public holidays, but royal palaces, museums, department stores and leisure facilities mostly keep running, according to KTO's guide to the public holidays, though some shops close for several days in a row. Hours vary place by place, so KTO suggests checking each venue's own website or the Naver Map and KakaoMap apps before you set out.

Major national museums, including the National Museum of Korea and the four branches of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, generally close on Chuseok Day itself and open for the rest of the holiday. On Jeju, book a summit hike on the Hallasan National Park reservation system; our Hallasan guide explains the routes and booking rules.

Inside the cities, getting around stays easy. KTO says subways and city buses run as usual throughout the holiday, and on Chuseok Day and the day after some services run later than usual for people returning from their trips.

Free palaces, folk villages and the holiday programmes

The Korea Heritage Service sets its admission rules for each holiday. Over Chuseok 2026, KTO reported free admission to Seoul's four royal palaces, Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Deoksugung and Changgyeonggung, to Jongmyo Shrine and to all 40 royal tombs of the Joseon dynasty; about 40 national recreational forests were free too, though their cabins and camping decks still charged. See the Korea Heritage Service's announcement for the 2027 arrangements. The palaces of Jongno are the easiest way to spend Chuseok Day in Seoul, when much else is shut.

For a traditional setting, KTO names the Korean Folk Village in Yongin, a recreated Joseon-era village with folk games to try, and Jeonju Hanok Village, Korea's largest, with about 700 traditional houses; our Jeonju guide covers the town. In 2026, national museums around the country, from Jeonju and Iksan to Daegu, offered traditional games and crafts over the holiday, and Namhansanseong Fortress outside Seoul added Chuseok performances and evening walks to its autumn programme.

In some years Chuseok runs into the Andong Maskdance Festival: in 2026 the festival ran from 24 September to 4 October and opened on the day before Chuseok. Its organiser publishes each year's dates, and our Andong Hahoe guide explains the village and the mask dance.

Trains and buses: the homecoming rush

KTO's advice is to book any intercity journey early, because train and express-bus tickets sell out quickly as the whole country travels at once, and to keep a fallback such as a rental car. Korail sells holiday-week trains in a separate advance sale that it announces for each holiday and opens to members only. For Chuseok 2026 it sold tickets to passengers aged 65 and over, disabled and pregnant passengers, and national merit recipients on 3 and 4 September and to everyone from 7 to 11 September, from 07:00 to 13:00; those priority buyers had taken 43.2% of the seats on offer before the general sale opened. Since the high-speed services were merged in 2026, members of SR alone have had to join Korail's combined membership to buy.

From 1 October 2026 Korail opened its ordinary bookings for foreign passengers two months before departure instead of one. Check Korail's notice for the 2027 holiday sale to see whether foreign passengers can join it; if you cannot get a seat, move the journey to Monday 13 September or earlier, or to Friday 17 September or later. Our transport guide explains the KTX lines and the booking apps.

Where to spend it

For most visitors, Seoul is the best base. The palaces and the national museums give you something open on every day of the holiday, the subway runs normally, and shops near the main sights often stay open. Plan Chuseok Day itself around a palace and a walk, and leave shopping and restaurant evenings for the 14th and the 16th.

For the festival's traditional side, base yourself in Jeonju or Andong for the three days and arrive before the first day of the holiday, or visit the Korean Folk Village as a day trip from Seoul. Avoid planning a coast-to-coast route that week: Busan, Gyeongju and Jeju are all perfectly good places to be, but getting between them on 14 and 16 September is the hard part. Our Korea festivals and events calendar has the rest of the 2027 holidays, and our best time to visit guide explains what the weather does in September.