If you're new to Korea, you might be asking a fair question right about now. Didn't everyone just have a holiday? Yes. We did. Chuseok wrapped up last weekend, and one week later the whole country is taking another three days off. Nobody's complaining.
This year Chuseok ran from Thursday, September 24 to Saturday the 26th, with Sunday tacked on the end. Then Gaecheonjeol, National Foundation Day, lands on Saturday, October 3. Because it lands on a Saturday, Monday, October 5 is off too. That's an official substitute holiday, and it was printed in red on the 2026 calendar the government released last year. Hangul Day follows on Friday, October 9, so there's another three-day weekend right behind it. Honestly, October looks like somebody knocked a bottle of red ink over the calendar.
(The bear-and-garlic story behind Gaecheonjeol can wait until tomorrow. Today is about the days off.)
Quick facts
- October 3 (Sat) National Foundation Day, October 5 (Mon) substitute holiday
- Hangul Day: Friday, October 9
- Take leave October 6 to 8 for nine days off in a row (October 3 to 11)
- Banks, post offices and government offices are closed on October 5
- Holiday KTX trains out of Seoul can sell out, so book early
So why is Monday off?
Short version: Korea has rules for holidays that fall on weekends, and they're pickier than you'd think.
It's all spelled out in a rule with the thrilling name "Regulation on Holidays of Government Offices," Article 3, if you're the type who checks. The gist? A national holiday lands on a weekend, you get the next normal weekday instead. And by national holiday they mean four days: March 1, Liberation Day in August, Gaecheonjeol, and Hangul Day. Children's Day gets the same treatment, and so do Buddha's Birthday and Christmas.
Now here's the part that trips people up. Seollal and Chuseok play by different rules. They only get a substitute day when one of their three days falls on a Sunday or runs into another holiday, and a Saturday doesn't count. That's exactly what happened last week. Chuseok's last day was a Saturday and we got nothing back for it. Gaecheonjeol on a Saturday, though? Monday off. I've lived here my whole life and I still find that a little funny. And New Year's Day gets no substitute at all, weekend or not. Tough luck.
It wasn't always like this. Substitute holidays only started in 2014, and back then they covered Seollal, Chuseok and Children's Day and nothing else. The national holidays joined in August 2021 (the first one was Monday, August 16 that year, for Liberation Day). Buddha's Birthday and Christmas came in 2023. People my age spent most of our working lives watching holidays quietly disappear into Sundays, so trust me, nobody here takes that Monday for granted.
One catch, though. Red on the calendar doesn't mean everybody gets to sleep in. Private companies only had to start treating these as paid days off fairly recently, and it happened in waves (big firms with 300 or more staff in 2020, 30 or more in 2021, and anyone with five or more in 2022). Work at a place with four people? Then Monday could be just a Monday for you. So if the tiny kimbap shop near your guesthouse is open on the 5th, that's part of the reason.
The leave-day math
Once Koreans figure out the holidays, the next step is pure arithmetic. Look at this October. Saturday the 3rd through Monday the 5th, off. Friday the 9th through Sunday the 11th, off again. And sitting in between are three lonely weekdays, Tuesday the 6th to Thursday the 8th.
Take annual leave on those three and you get nine days in a row, October 3 to 11. Nine days for three. You can see why people get excited.
We even have a word for those in-between workdays: jinggeomdari, which means stepping stones, like the flat rocks you hop across to get over a stream. Korean news sites have been running "how to get nine days off" stories all week, which tells you how seriously people take this. I'd bet more than a few team leaders opened their inbox this week and found the same three dates requested by half the team. Not a fun morning for them.
And people really do go places. Incheon Airport expected about 1.14 million passengers over Chuseok alone (September 23 to 27), a record for that holiday, and airlines were counting on the demand spilling over into October. With only a few days, most people look for short flights. Japan is the classic pick, and Jeju is close behind, since you don't want to spend half your holiday in the air.
What people actually do with it
Here's the thing about this particular weekend. Chuseok is family time. You drive to your hometown, sit in traffic for hours, eat jeon and songpyeon until you can't move, and then a relative asks about your salary or when you're getting married. Gaecheonjeol weekend shows up right after all that, and it feels completely different. It's yours. Nobody's expecting you anywhere.
So plenty of people take a short trip. Gangneung on the east coast and Gyeongju are both easy by KTX or car, and Jeonju is popular with anyone who mostly travels to eat. It's festival season too. The Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival, where thousands of lanterns float on the river, opens October 3 and runs until the 18th. The Gimje Horizon Festival at Byeokgolje wraps up on the 5th. Andong's mask dance festival ends on the 4th, the same day the Suwon Hwaseong Cultural Festival kicks off (it goes until the 11th, and I'll have more on Suwon in a couple of days).
Fall color in Gyeongju, one of the easy long-weekend escapes. Photo: Ahalya Suresh / Unsplash
Then there's the other camp, which is honestly huge. The stay-in-Seoul people. Sleep until ten. Walk along the Han River with an iced americano (yes, Koreans drink it iced in October, and in January too). Order fried chicken. Finally finish that drama you've been putting off. Three days, no suitcase, no traffic. It's not glamorous, but it's a perfectly good holiday and a lot of Koreans would choose it over a five-hour drive.
Speaking of driving. The expressways are the part nobody enjoys. Heading out of the city, Saturday morning is usually the worst, and coming back into Seoul it's Monday afternoon. Everyone checks TMAP or Kakao Navi before leaving, then checks again ten minutes later as if the traffic might have changed its mind. It hasn't.
If you're here that weekend
A few practical things if you're in Korea from October 3 to 5.
Popular spots and festival towns will be busy, so book KTX seats and your room early, because holiday trains out of Seoul can sell out. Banks, post offices and government offices are closed on Monday the 5th, since the substitute holiday is a real public holiday for them. You can still grab cash at an ATM or a convenience store (there's one on basically every corner), and restaurants and cafes are mostly open as usual. Palaces and museums? Usually open on holidays. But each one has its own day off, so look it up first. Standing at a locked gate is a sad way to start a morning.
Oh, and a small bonus. Seoul empties out a little when everyone leaves town. It's not dramatic, but the subway on a holiday Saturday can feel a bit roomier than usual. Enjoy it while it lasts. By Monday night the city is back to normal, and four days later we get to do the whole thing again for Hangul Day.
Official info
Holiday rules and opening days can change, so check before you go (details as of October 6, 2026).
- Regulation on Holidays of Government Offices, full text (Korean)
- Royal Palaces and Tombs Center: palace opening hours and closing days (Korean)
More from this blog
- Hangul Day in Korea (October 9): Why an Alphabet Gets Its Own National Holiday
- Korean Hiking Culture: Why Koreans Dress Like They're Climbing Everest
So does your country move a holiday when it falls on a weekend, or do you just lose it?
Top photo: the pavilion at Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond in Gyeongju. Photo: Domenico Gentile / Unsplash
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