Festivals and Public Holidays

Two dates run the Korean year and everything else fits around them. Seollal and Chuseok are the great family holidays, and on them the country effectively closes - families travel, intercity tickets sell out the moment they are released, motorways jam, and a great many shops and restaurants shut for several days.

Put them in your calendar now. An unprepared foreign resident spends them staring at shuttered shutters.

The two that matter

They move with the lunar calendar, so the dates shift each year and you need to check them rather than assume.

	What happens
Travel	The entire country moves at once. Book the day tickets release
Shops and restaurants	Many close for several days, including in cities
Hospitals	Emergency departments only. Pharmacies largely shut
Transport within cities	Runs, and is unusually quiet
Attractions	Many open, and palaces sometimes free
Offices and banks	Closed

Your three options are to travel with it, stay put and stock up, or leave the country - and the worst option is not deciding. If you stay in a city, it is oddly peaceful: empty streets, short queues and open attractions.

For anyone with Korean in-laws, this is also when family obligation is concentrated. Family life in Korea covers that side.

The rest of the public holidays

A handful of other dates close offices and banks without closing the country: the new year's day, independence and liberation commemorations, children's day, Buddha's birthday, national foundation and the alphabet day, and Christmas.

Two mechanics worth knowing. A substitute weekday is granted when certain holidays fall on a weekend, so a Saturday holiday can produce a Monday off. And a holiday falling next to a weekend creates a long weekend that everybody books travel for, so the same rules apply as for the big two.

Spring

Cherry blossom is the event of the Korean spring, lasting a little over a week in any given place and moving north through the country over several weeks. Festivals cluster around it, with the one in the southern naval city the most famous and correspondingly crowded. Forecasts are published and reliable to within a few days.

Also: flower festivals through April and May, and the lantern festival for Buddha's birthday, when temples are hung with lanterns and there is a large parade in Seoul. That one is genuinely beautiful and free.

Summer

Hot, humid and includes a rainy season, which shapes everything. The festival calendar responds with water: the mud festival on the west coast is the famous one and is as silly and enjoyable as it sounds, and beach and music festivals run through July and August.

This is also peak domestic holiday season, so the coast is busy and prices rise. The mountains are hot but the valleys are not, and this is when temple stays and highland areas earn their keep.

Autumn

The best weather of the year and the busiest for travel. Foliage moves south through October and November, and the mountain parks are spectacular and packed at weekends.

The festival season peaks: lantern festivals, mask dance, fireworks over the water in Busan, harvest and food festivals in almost every region. If you only go to a handful of things all year, make them autumn ones.

Winter

Cold, dry and bright, and better than its reputation. Ice fishing and snow festivals run in the mountain provinces, ski resorts are within reach of Seoul, and the cities put up substantial light displays.

The quiet advantage of winter travel is that everything is cheap and empty except at the resorts.

Local and regional festivals

Worth a paragraph of its own, because the famous ones are the crowded ones. Almost every district in Korea runs a festival, usually around a local product, a historical association or a season - a particular fruit, a fish, a flower, a battle, a kiln.

These are frequently better than the national-famous equivalents: smaller, cheaper, friendlier to someone who does not speak much Korean, and more interesting because nobody has smoothed them out for visitors. Food is cheap, there is usually a stage, and foreigners are a novelty in a warm way rather than an expected part of the crowd.

Find them through your city or district website, the local tourism office, or simply by noticing the banners that go up across the road a fortnight beforehand. Community and cultural events covers the gatherings organised specifically for foreign residents.

Planning around it

• Check lunar dates annually. Seollal and Chuseok move.
• Book intercity travel the day it releases for any holiday period.
• Stock food before the big two if you are staying put.
• Confirm a festival's dates each year. Many shift with weather or the lunar calendar.
• Expect crowds at the famous ones, and consider the regional equivalent instead.
• Keep a pharmacy plan for the holiday week. Pharmacies and medicine covers what stays open.

Where this goes wrong

• Not knowing when Seollal and Chuseok fall this year.
• Booking holiday travel late. The tickets are gone in hours.
• No food in the flat for a four-day closure.
• Arriving for cherry blossom a week after it finished in that city.
• Assuming a festival runs the same dates as last year.

Where to go next

Places worth a weekend covers where to go in each season, and community and cultural events covers the gatherings aimed at foreign residents.

Public holidays, practically

Beyond the two great family holidays, a handful of dates close offices and banks without closing the country, and two mechanics are worth knowing.

A substitute weekday is granted when certain holidays fall on a weekend, so a Saturday holiday can produce a Monday off. And a holiday adjacent to a weekend creates a long weekend that the whole country books travel for, which means the same rules as the big two: book early or stay put.

Check the current year's calendar rather than assuming, because the lunar dates move and the substitution rules have changed. Offices publish their closures in advance and banks post them on the door.