– On the occasion of Chuseok, the harvest festival, the Gyeonggi Provincial Office, provides an opportunity for U.S. troops in Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek to have a first-hand experience of the nation’s traditional culture and see how Koreans observe the holiday. 

The second annual event after the one held last year will be carried out toward troops and their families (five hundred in total) in the Community Activities Center in Camp Humphreys on September 15. 

The event programs include performance of traditional arts, such as Ogomu (dancing mixed with playing five drums), fan dancing, farmer’s dance, and samulnori (dancing to four percussion instruments), making songpyeon (half moon-shaped rice cake which is a staple dish in Chuseok), ddeok-me-chi-gi (the act of striking a kneaded lump of rice cake with a long-handled mallet to make it softer) as well as trying on hanbok, traditional Korean clothes, making face masks, tuho (throwing arrows into a bottle placed at some distance in a horseshoe-throwing style), tug-of-war, and gang-gang-sul-lae (women trotting hand in hand, making a circle and singing. 

The provincial office plans to hold similar events designed to enhance goodwill and friendship between U.S. troops and Koreans. In the past, it invited U.S. troops to programs of visiting the nation’s cultural and industrial sites.