Men doing bigger share of Chuseok chores

With Chuseok a mere two days away, families are busy preparing for the festivities. But depending on your gender, that burden could fall solely on you.

Most think of holidays as a celebration in this case a festival to traditionally celebrate a good harvest over the past year. But for women, the seemingly never-ending preparations for Chuseok give them something else to look forward to: the end of the holiday season.

This is the case for most families. A typical picture of Chuseok is a scene in which the men are gathered around the television or talking over a game of cards, with the women chatting in the kitchen preparing jeon ― a Korean-style pancake with a wide variety of added ingredients.

In the past, newly-married women would dread going to their in-laws during Chuseok, for fear of the workload.

“When I first started preparing for the holidays it was really tiring. No matter how hard I worked, I didn’t see an end in sight. I worked to the point where my legs would swell up,” said No Eun-jeong, who has been married for over 20 years.

Some husbands were barred from helping their wives, for fear of repercussions from their parents.

“When we first got married, no matter how difficult the workload was, my husband never helped because he had to make sure his parents were happy. He felt that by not helping with the work, he was in fact helping me in the long run,” said Lee Sung-ok.