East anD SOUTHEAST ASIA THE KOREAS

For more than three thousand years there was no  “North Korea” and “South Korea" -- just "KOREA," a nation that developed over the centuries to become a unified whose based on shared history, traditions and language. Then came a brutal Japanese colonization starting in 1910 which gaves way to a decimating armed conflict in the early 1950s -- Americans know it "the Korean War," while Koreans refer to as their civil war -- which thrust Korea into the center of the military and ideological struggle between the Soviets, the Chinese and the United States. Since then the North, which sided with the Soviets and Chinese, has split from the American-supported South with such vigor that there is still  a line between the countries that is nearly impossible to cross. The chasm between the countries continues to widen; the civil war's wounds are still raw.  

Chuseok (also known as “Hangawi” which means, in old Korean, “big middle”) is the Korean holiday of thanksgiving. The festival takes place around the 15th day of the 8th month of the Korean lunar calendar, which is some time around the start of autumn. Koreans take advantage of the three holiday to visit their ancestral hometowns, feast with their families (many eat traditional Korean dishes like songpyeon, a rice-cake stuffed with sweet fillings such as sesame seeds or honey and steamed upon pine needles) and visit the graves of their departed relatives.