The pandemic changes age old Chuseok traditions

Elderly film Chuseok greetings videos for their children

Website offering online Chuseok memorial services

Nursing home with non-contact meeting facilities

Elderly being aided to facetime with daughter

Article: "Don't come" grandmas say, "but it'd still be good to see you with masks on"

Source: Joongang Ilbo via Naver

1. [+1,820, -162] I wish we didn't have to fight over who has to visit the in-laws and just keep it so that everyone visits their individual families. Isn't it more important to see the parents who gave birth to you than to go pay respects to ancestors who aren't even related to you? Wouldn't those ancestors want to see their own offspring? Not some stranger's kids?

2. [+899, -23] I understand going to pay respects to ancestors like great-grandparents, but the elders should refrain from upholding excessive traditions like offering food to ancestors so far up that no one has even met them.

3. [+662, -41] This is bittersweet ㅠ especially for the elderly who don't have much time left..

4. [+599, -52] I wouldn't blame this on the virus. I think the virus is just bringing out the realities of the tradition and how people truly feel about the holiday. I know that a lot of people are going on vacation in lieu of visiting family this year...

5. [+463, -66] I heard Jeju Island is full of people vacationing right now while using the virus as an excuse to not see their family... It's wrong to justify not seeing your family by using the virus as an excuse.

6. [+318, -12] This is the result of the Chuseok traditions that demand so much labor from women. It'd be better if all the labor was kept to one day so that the rest of the holiday could be enjoyed as a break but women are constantly being demanded to cook, set tables, and visit relatives they don't even know with presents out of obligation...

7. [+186, -3] I think people are just sick and tired of the tradition of offering food for ancestors. It'd be so much easier if we could visit relatives without the pressure of such traditions on us. In our age, it's just such a costly hassle to have to go clean up grave sites for our ancestors. It's one of the things that makes it difficult to see our relatives with smiling faces.

8. [+186, -6] I'm good... whenever I vist, all I'm expected to do is do the dishes, I never fit in with my in-law's families, I get blamed for all of my husband's shortcomings (how am I supposed to make him quit smoking when he's been smoking since middle school), I get compared to my sister-in-law and her ability to shape up her husband (when she basically nags him to death)...

-