🌕 Chuseok 2026: Sep 24 (Thu) – Sep 27 (Sun)
Chuseok is Korea's biggest holiday. Most of the country travels to their hometown on the same days. If a friend is coming to Korea around then, this is the page to send them — it answers the question everyone living here gets asked every year: "will anything be open?"
⚠️ The short version
Official holidays are Sep 24 (Thu) – Sep 26 (Sat). Sep 27 (Sun) is a Sunday, so it is effectively a four-day break — and then Sep 28 (Mon) is a Monday, the most common weekly closing day in Korea. Plan around both, not just the holiday.
What actually closes
We track opening hours for 6,620 restaurants and 2,018 cafés registered in Korea Tourism Organization data. Here is what they say themselves:
| What the listing says | Restaurants | Cafés |
|---|---|---|
| Says it closes for Chuseok / Lunar New Year | 518 | 49 |
| Says it is open year-round (연중무휴) | 3,307 | 1,299 |
| Closes every Monday | 1,107 | 319 |
The Monday-after trap
Sep 28 (Mon) is a Monday. Monday is the single most common closing day in Korea — 1,107 restaurants (17%) and 319 cafés (16%) in our data close every Monday. So "we'll just go after the holiday" walks straight into it. The first fully normal day is the Tuesday.
How it differs from the holiday you may know
Chuseok falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, so the date moves every year. Korea makes it a three-day public holiday — the day before, the day itself, and the day after. If you know American Thanksgiving, the feel is similar: family, food, and the entire country travelling at once. The difference is that Korea is small and the travel is compressed into those few days, which is why intercity buses, trains and highways fill up and why so many small businesses simply shut.
What is open
7 festivals are running across the holiday. Festivals are one of the few things that stay open on Chuseok — many are timed for it.
- 2026 Dalseong Daeguhyeondaemisulje Movement: Flow-Ringer-Flux 2026 달성 대구현대미술제 Movement: Flow-Ringer-Flux📍 Daegu Dalseonggun · 📅 2026.09.11 – 2026.10.11
- Yeonggwangbulgapsansangsahwachukje 영광불갑산상사화축제📍 South Jeolla Yeonggwanggun · 📅 2026.09.18 – 2026.09.27
- Gamaksan Kkotbyeol Yeohaeng 감악산 꽃별 여행📍 South Gyeongsang Geochanggun · 📅 2026.09.18 – 2026.10.11
- 2026 Gyeonggidojabiennalle 2026 경기도자비엔날레📍 Gyeonggi Icheonsi · 📅 2026.09.18 – 2026.11.01
- Suwonhwaseong Midieoateu 수원화성 미디어아트📍 Gyeonggi Suwonsi · 📅 2026.09.19 – 2026.10.06
- Gyeongnamgoseonggongnyongsegyeekseupo 경남고성공룡세계엑스포📍 South Gyeongsang Goseonggun · 📅 2026.09.22 – 2026.11.01
- Andonggukjetalchumpeseutibeol 안동국제탈춤페스티벌📍 North Gyeongsang Andongsi · 📅 2026.09.24 – 2026.10.04
Traditional markets, day by day
Korea's five-day markets (오일장) open on a fixed cycle of date endings, so we can say which ones fall on each holiday day. Of the 136 markets whose cycle we know:
What this page does not cover
We only write what our own data supports. Visas and K-ETA, transport cards, SIM cards and flight prices are not our data, so we do not cover them. Plenty of sites do — and getting those wrong would cost you more than our staying quiet.
Source: Korea Tourism Organization public data (opening hours, festivals, traditional markets) and the Korean government public-holiday calendar. Opening-hours figures are counted from 6,620 restaurants and 2,018 cafés on 2026-08-19. Businesses change holiday hours at short notice — always confirm before travelling.