October 3, 2025
SEOUL – Whether you are staying put in the capital or visiting Seoul over the extra-long holiday period, rest assured, you won’t be bored.
Oct. 3-9 is your chance to explore the royal palaces, Jongmyo Shrine and the royal tombs for free with no reservation required. The palaces and Jongmyo Shrine will remain open through Oct. 12, but the royal tombs will be closed on Oct. 10.
Of course, Seoul has more to offer than just strolling through old palaces. The Korea Herald has put together a brief introduction to some of the varied activities and performances taking place in the city over the holiday — many of which are free.
K-Royal Culture Festival celebrates tradition
The 2025 Fall K-Royal Culture Festival will take place from Oct. 8-12 at Seoul’s four major palaces and Jongmyo Shrine. Jointly hosted by the Korea Heritage Service and the Korea Heritage Agency, the festival offers a unique blend of traditional culture, performances and hands-on experiences for people of all ages.
Special programs this year include a Hanbok Royal Banquet at Gyeongbokgung, where visitors in traditional hanbok can enjoy live demonstrations of Korean sewing, embroidery and gold-leaf techniques. A new Hanbok Storytelling program will be introduced by designated intangible cultural heritage holders, providing deep insights into the craftsmanship of hanbok.
At Changgyeonggung, seniors can participate in Donggwol Jangwonseo, a traditional horticultural program, while children can enjoy hands-on activities at Junmyeongdang Children’s School in Deoksugung. At Jongmyo Shrine, the Jongmyo Architecture Expedition invites youth to explore the shrine’s architecture.
Other highlights include the Palace Concert at Jongmyo Shrine, blending ritual music with the beauty of the site, and the Moonlight Lotus Show at Changgyeonggung, a nighttime media art display.
For foreign national guests, special programs are available through Creatrip.
For more information and reservations, visit Ticketlink (www.ticketlink.co.kr) and Creatrip (www.creatrip.com).
Installation view of “Highlights of MMCA Global Art Collection” at MMCA Gwacheon. PHOTO: MMCA/THE KOREA HERALD
Chuseok at MMCA for exhibitions, hashtag events
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea’s four venues — Seoul, Gwacheon, Deoksugung and Cheongju — will remain open Oct. 3-9, throughout National Foundation Day, the Chuseok holiday and Hangeul Day.
The museum will be running a social media event for visitors who verify their visit to the museum on those days, posting their photos on Instagram with “2025 ChuseokmajiGukhyeonmiBangmun,” a hashtag in Korean which translates as “2025 Chuseok Visit to MMCA.” Participants will have the chance to win prizes such as Bluetooth earphones and coffee vouchers.
Key exhibitions underway at the museums are “Korea Artist Prize 2025” and “Kim Tschang-Yeul” at MMCA Seoul, “A Commemorative Exhibition for the 80th Anniversary of Liberation: Landscapes of Homeland and Longing” at MMCA Deoksugung, “Highlights of MMCA Global Art Collection” at MMCA Gwacheon and “The Bunker: A Passage to Light” at MMCA Cheongju.
Seouichul Band. PHOTO: NMK/THE KOREA HERALD
Tradition meets modernity at National Museum of Korea
The National Museum of Korea will host the “2025 The Art Spot Series” at its Open Plaza from Oct. 5-9. The museum will be closed on Oct. 6, this year’s Chuseok Day.
The “Art Spot Series” is an annual joint program held in conjunction with the Korea Traditional Performing Arts Foundation, where people can experience traditional performance. This year’s program will be held under the theme “Encounter Between Tangible and Intangible Heritage.”
Seouichul Band will kick-start the performing series on Oct. 5, staging “Chuseok Good Luck Gut,” a reinterpreted performance of Korea’s traditional shamanic ritual, or gut, that covers diverse regional variations. This will be followed by pungmul, traditional folk music and dance, and talchum, Korean mask dance drama, performed by traditional performing arts troupe The Gwangdae.
A contemporary reinterpretation of Korea’s traditional percussion music, samulnori, is scheduled for Oct. 7. The next day brings a performance of panjul, Korea’s iconic tightrope walking, which was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in 2011. The National Gugak Orchestra will be performing on Oct. 8 as well.
Korea’s traditional mask drama, “Yangju Byeolsandae Nori,” inscribed as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage and a National Intangible Cultural Heritage of Korea, is scheduled for Oct. 9. Handed down for more than 300 years in Yangju, the satirical mask dance drama humorously depicts class conflicts, critiques of the elite, and the realities of everyday life.
All performances are free of charge, open to the public and do not require a reservation. More details are available on the National Museum of Korea’s official website.
Visitors enjoy a performance of “Ganggangsullae.” PHOTO: NMFK/THE KOREA HERALD
Experience ssireum and hanbok at National Folk Museum of Korea
Chuseok is a time when families and relatives gather, share stories and join in on moon-watching and ganggangsullae, a traditional Korean circle dance. The National Folk Museum of Korea will present a variety of traditional performances and programs in collaboration with the Korea Craft & Design Foundation this year.
The festivities begin Oct. 5 with a vibrant parade of “Pyeongtaek Nongak,” folk music, dance and rituals from the Pyeongtaek region in Gyeonggi Province. During the ganggangsullae performance, visitors will be invited to join the dance on the spot. For those wanting to experience Korean folk wrestling, the Korea Ssireum Association will host a Chuseok Ssireum Contest and hands-on ssireum class on Oct. 5 and 7.
Other classes on offer on Oct. 5 and 7 focus on crafts such as making mother-of-pearl moon key rings, a minhwa-inspired hand mirror, and tiger origami.
Though not as common today, Koreans traditionally wore new hanbok, called chuseokbim, to celebrate Chuseok. As a pre-event for Hanbok Culture Week, the museum will host “Chuseok Hanbok Experience: Dressing in Traditional Elegance” on Oct. 4 and 5.
More details are available on NFMK’s official website. The museum will be closed on Oct. 6, Chuseok Day.
Transe Express’ “Giant Dolls & Les Tambours.” PHOTO: SEOUL FOUNDATION FOR ARTS AND CULTURE/THE KOREA HERALD
Street arts festival to take over central Seoul
Seoul will turn its plazas and waterways into an open-air stage over Chuseok. From Oct. 6-8, the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture will host Seoul Street Arts Festival 2025, filling Cheonggyecheon and Seoul Plaza with dance, circus, music and experimental performances from Korea and abroad.
Running daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., the festival presents more than 30 works designed to reimagine everyday urban space as an artistic playground.
At the heart of this year’s program is “The Resonance of Seoul and Harmony,” a large-scale production from choreographer Lee Luda’s Black Toe. Staged at Seoul Plaza Stage on Oct. 7 and 8, it blends traditional Korean forms such as pansori (musical storytelling) and samulnori (percussion music) with taekwondo, contemporary dance and media art — an attempt to bridge tradition and modernity, the performers and the city.
Ten homegrown productions, chosen under the theme of “Seoulness,” will bring everything from acrobatics to comic theater to street corners across downtown. Among the highlights is “City of Fallen Stars” by CodeSassy, a nighttime aerial spectacle using massive mobile sculptures that will transform Seoul’s skyline into a circus arena.
International programming has also expanded. France’s renowned troupe Transe Express will parade its towering marionettes from Cheonggye Plaza to Seoul Plaza, turning central boulevards into a roving opera stage.
Full schedules are available on the festival’s official website.
Graduates of the 2025 Ojakgyo Project’s pansori classes pose for a photo. PHOTO: WORLD PANSORI ASSOCIATION/THE KOREA HERALD
Namsan and Donhwamun Theaters keep gugak alive
Gugak performances continue at both Namsan and Donhwamun theaters throughout the holiday week.
The World Pansori Association will host the third World Pansori Festival on Oct. 8 and 9 at the Namsan Traditional Theater.
This year’s centerpiece is the premiere of “The Tale of the Acrobat Swallow.” Inspired by the swallow-and-gourd motif from the classic pansori Heungbo-ga, the piece expands its narrative with characters drawn from other folktales — including Sim Cheong and Chun-hyang. The story follows a limping swallow and a magical gourd on their journey back to Joseon, performed through a blend of song, theater and music that reimagines the traditional form.
The festival also highlights new voices. Participants include Korean and foreign nationals who completed the 2025 Ojakgyo Project’s pansori classes. They will take the stage to perform excerpts from Chunhyang-ga and Sugung-ga.
Festivities conclude Oct. 9 with “Let’s Ganggangsullae Go! Go! Go!,” a special full-moon performance reviving the traditional circle dance. Audiences are invited to join hands with singers for a finale that transforms the stage into a global harvest celebration.
Full schedules are available on the official website.
Meanwhile, Donhwamun Traditional Theater will host free afternoon concerts on Oct. 8 and 9 at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., featuring singer-songwriter 3San and the crossover ensemble Simfull, which blends vocals with haegeum, a traditional string instrument, percussion and keyboards. No reservations are required.
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