What Changes in Seoul During Chuseok — Free Palaces, Closed Museums
Last Updated on September 2, 2026
Quick Answer
During Chuseok (추석, September 24–26, 2026), several of Seoul’s usual visitor rules flip for three days. The four main palaces, Jongmyo Shrine, and the Joseon royal tombs have gone free every Chuseok and Seollal for the last three cycles running, though the 2026 notice hadn’t posted as of this writing. Changdeokgung’s Secret Garden stays excluded. The National Museum of Korea and National Folk Museum do the opposite — both close completely on Chuseok Day itself.
The Full Answer
Nearly every English-language guide to Chuseok in Seoul repeats the same line: the palaces are free that week. That’s accurate, as far as it goes, and for most of them that’s where it stops. What actually happens is closer to a temporary swap of the city’s operating rules than a single “free admission” event — for three days a different rule set governs which buildings you can walk into, what they cost, and which are open at all, and then it reverts.
The swap doesn’t move in one direction, and that’s the part that catches people. The palaces and Jongmyo Shrine (종묘) open up; the National Museum of Korea and the National Folk Museum close down, on the same holiday. Someone who read “palaces are free during Chuseok” and planned “palaces one day, a museum the other” can walk up to a locked museum door on Chuseok Day itself and have no idea why.
I checked the Royal Palaces and Tombs Centre’s (궁능유적본부) notice board and Jongmyo’s own visiting-information page directly on September 2, 2026, looking for the 2026 Chuseok announcement. Neither had posted one yet. So this article does something most competing guides don’t: it separates what’s confirmed by an official 2026 notice from what’s confirmed only by a three-cycle pattern, and says which is which, section by section.
The Dates: When Chuseok Falls in Seoul in 2026
Chuseok 2026 runs Thursday, September 24 through Saturday, September 26, with Chuseok Day itself — the actual date on the lunar calendar — falling on Friday, September 25. There’s no substitute holiday (대체공휴일) this year: the rule grants one only when a Chuseok day lands on a Sunday, and none of the three does. The stretch still reads as four days for most people, since Sunday, September 27 sits right against it. That fourth day isn’t an extension of Chuseok — but Sunday is a public holiday in its own right under the same regulation, and that distinction turns out to matter for when the palaces close again.
Photo by Jin-Woo Lee on unsplash
Normal Day vs. Chuseok: What Actually Flips
Seoul during Chuseok isn’t one uniform “holiday mode.” Each site follows its own rule, and several move in opposite directions from each other. The table below is the frame for the rest of this article — every row gets its own section further down.
| What | On an ordinary public holiday | During Chuseok (Sept 24–26, 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| 4 main palaces (Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Deoksugung) | Paid admission, hanbok wearers free | Free for everyone — based on 3 straight cycles; 2026 notice not yet posted |
| Jongmyo Shrine | Free walk-through, no booking — but a ₩1,000 fee applies | Same walk-through; past notices waived the fee entirely |
| Changdeokgung’s Secret Garden (Huwon) | Separate timed ticket, extra fee, booking required | Same as always — excluded from free admission every cycle so far |
| Joseon royal tombs | Regular paid admission | Free, per the same 3-cycle pattern |
| National Museum of Korea / National Folk Museum | Both open — neither closes for ordinary public holidays | Closed completely on Chuseok Day (Sept 25) — open Sept 24 and 26 |
| Gyeongbokgung night opening (2026 season: Sept 2–Oct 2) | Ticketed, ₩3,000, closed Mon/Tue | Runs on all 3 Chuseok dates — but Sept 23–27 tickets were sold out as of Aug 31, 2026 |
| Large discount marts (E-Mart, Homeplus, Lotte Mart) | Open, except 2 mandated Sundays a month | September’s 2nd mandatory closure day is reported to shift onto Chuseok Day (Sept 25) |
| The day after the free-admission window ends | N/A | Full closure at all palace sites, in each of the last 3 confirmed cycles |
The Palaces and Jongmyo Go Free — Based on a Three-Year Pattern, Not (Yet) a 2026 Notice
Three cycles running, the pattern has been identical: the four main palaces, Jongmyo Shrine, and the Joseon royal tombs opened free of charge for the length of the holiday.
| Cycle | Free-admission dates | Notice posted | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 Chuseok | Sept 14–18, 2024 | By Sept 10, 2024 | 4 palaces + Jongmyo + royal tombs |
| 2025 Chuseok | Oct 3–9, 2025 | Sept 23–24, 2025 | Same, with Changdeokgung’s Secret Garden named as excluded |
| 2026 Seollal | Feb 14–18, 2026 | Reported Feb 2, 2026 | 22 sites total |
| 2026 Chuseok | Sept 24–26, 2026 | Not yet posted (as of Sept 2, 2026) | Pattern points to the same scope |
I lined up the 2024 Chuseok notice, the 2025 Chuseok notice, and the 2026 Seollal notice side by side rather than assuming each year automatically repeats the last, and the terms matched closely enough to call it a real pattern rather than a coincidence. The lead time is the part that hasn’t been consistent, so putting a date on the next notice would be false precision: the 2024 round was public no more than four days before its window opened, the 2025 one nine to ten days ahead, and the 2026 Seollal round was reported about twelve days out. On that spread, a 2026 Chuseok notice would land somewhere between roughly September 12 and September 20 — an extrapolation across three cycles, not a date anyone has announced.
We opened five of the English-language guides covering Chuseok in Seoul for 2026 to see how each handled this. Four present the free admission as settled fact for this year. One, insideseoul.app, says plainly that it “had not been confirmed when this guide was written in late August 2026” and points readers at royal.khs.go.kr. So the gap is narrower than it first looks — it isn’t that nobody writing in English flags this, it’s that four guides out of five don’t.
Local tip — Four of the five English guides we opened write as if the 2026 free-admission dates were already locked in. Based on the last three cycles they almost certainly will be — but as of September 2, 2026, the Royal Palaces and Tombs Centre hadn’t posted a 2026 Chuseok notice on its own notice board. Check there directly before you finalize a schedule around it.
Jongmyo’s Free Admission Is a Two-Layer Change, Not One
Competing guides describe Jongmyo Shrine (종묘) as switching from “reservation required” to “walk in free” for Chuseok, as if the holiday unlocks a door that’s normally shut. Two of the five we opened put it in almost those words: travel-stained.com calls Jongmyo “normally strictly reservation-only for guided tours,” and insideseoul.app calls Chuseok “the one window in the year to wander it at your own pace.” That’s not quite what happens, and the actual mechanism only makes sense once you know Jongmyo’s rules for the rest of the year.
Jongmyo already runs a two-track system, confirmed on our own guide to its entry rules: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday require a scheduled, guide-led entry with no self-paced option — but Saturdays, Sundays, and any public holiday already switch to free, self-paced walk-through, for a ₩1,000 fee (as of 2026). Chuseok Day itself, Friday, September 25, would fall on a normal weekday guided-only slot in an ordinary week. And it isn’t only the middle day that qualifies: Korea’s public holiday regulation lists “the day before Chuseok, Chuseok, and the day after” as three separate statutory holidays (Article 2, item 9). September 24, 25 and 26 are therefore all already in Jongmyo’s free-walk-through category under its standing rules — before Chuseok’s own special notice enters the picture at all.
I read Jongmyo’s day-by-day rules directly against the pattern from past Chuseok notices to see where the fee waiver actually applies, rather than assuming the entire reservation system turns off for the holiday. What the Chuseok notice adds, based on that comparison, is narrower than “you can walk in now.” It waives the ₩1,000 fee that public-holiday walk-through visitors already pay every other public holiday of the year. The walk-in access itself isn’t new for Chuseok — the free part is.
Local tip — “Jongmyo requires reservations, except during Chuseok” is roughly how the English guides that mention Jongmyo’s entry rules at all put it, and it implies the holiday itself unlocks self-paced entry. It doesn’t — any public holiday already does that, for a ₩1,000 fee. What Chuseok’s notice changes, based on the last three cycles, is that the fee drops to zero. It’s a one-line distinction, and it only turns up if you’ve read Jongmyo’s day-by-day rules closely enough to notice that public holidays were never guided-only to begin with.
The Exception: Changdeokgung’s Secret Garden Stays Out
Free admission during Chuseok has covered the four main palaces, Jongmyo, and the Joseon royal tombs for three cycles running — but Changdeokgung’s Secret Garden (후원, Huwon) has been excluded from it every single time.
The wording hasn’t stayed consistent, though, and it’s worth reading closely rather than assuming one year’s phrasing carries over to the next:
- The 2024 notice excluded the Secret Garden outright — it simply wasn’t part of the free-admission scope.
- The 2025 Changdeokgung notice is worded differently again. Read directly, it sets the free-opening window (October 3–9, 2025) and then handles guided commentary as a separate item — palace-hall narration suspended for that stretch, Secret Garden narration running as normal — without restating the admission scope at all. On its own, that notice never says the Secret Garden is included, and never says it is excluded.
The practical answer hasn’t changed in either year — you still book and pay for the Secret Garden the ordinary way, even during the window when free admission covers the rest of the palace grounds. But the wording isn’t consistent between cycles, so treat “the Secret Garden is excluded” as the reliable part and the exact scope as something to re-read once the 2026 notice is out.
Local tip — Two of the five English guides we opened do flag the Secret Garden exclusion; the other three treat “Changdeokgung is free during Chuseok” as covering the whole site. What none of them mentions is that the exclusion has been worded differently from cycle to cycle — and that the 2025 Changdeokgung notice doesn’t state the Secret Garden’s admission scope at all. If seeing Huwon is part of your plan, book and pay for it the normal way regardless of what the free-admission notice says about the rest of Changdeokgung.
The Reverse Case: Museums Close Exactly When the Palaces Open
Every free-admission change above moves in the same direction — sites that are normally paid or restricted become more open. The National Museum of Korea and the National Folk Museum move the opposite way, and they do it on the one day some English guides imply is when Seoul’s Chuseok museum activities are busiest.
The National Museum of Korea closes completely on January 1, Seollal, and Chuseok Day itself — for 2026, that’s January 1, February 17, and September 25. Not the whole three-day holiday window, just the single calendar day. The National Folk Museum (국립민속박물관) closes on the same dates at its main building, children’s museum, and Paju branch: all three close on September 25, 2026, alongside their standard closures on January 1, Seollal, and one scheduled maintenance closure on July 7.
The three days when the palaces are free bracket a single day — Sept 25 — when both museums are shut entirely.
We could not confirm whether the National Folk Museum runs its usual Chuseok craft programs — songpyeon-making, folk games — on the two open days of the holiday, September 24 and 26. Some English-language sources describe this kind of programming happening “during Chuseok” broadly, but we weren’t able to trace that claim to the museum’s own 2026 schedule, and it may actually describe a different venue (Namsangol Hanok Village runs comparable seasonal programs of its own). If a hands-on Chuseok activity matters to your plan, check nfm.go.kr directly rather than assuming a specific day.
Local tip — The English guides split on this, and the split matters more than the majority does. Two of the five we opened name the September 25 closure exactly. One describes both museums as adding “special Chuseok programming” for foreign visitors; another lists them as “usually open” with a vague “may have one day off during the holiday.” Both museums are closed on September 25, 2026 — Chuseok Day itself, the middle of the three-day window when the palaces are free. Put a museum visit on September 24 or 26, not the 25th.
The Day After: When the Free-Admission Window Snaps Shut
One detail has held across all three confirmed cycles: the day immediately after the free-admission period ends, the sites close completely — not a return to normal paid admission, but a full closure.
For the 2026 Seollal cycle, the free-admission window ran February 14–18, and February 19 (Thursday) was a full closure day across the palace sites. The same held in 2024 and 2025, tied to each cycle’s own end date rather than to a fixed day of the week. The 2025 Changdeokgung notice states the reason outright, citing the palace and royal tomb viewing regulation: the closure falls on the first non-holiday day after a public-holiday opening (공휴일 공개한 다음의 첫 번째 비공휴일).
That wording matters more than it looks, which is why we aren’t putting a date on it. Under Korea’s public holiday regulation, Sunday is itself a statutory holiday — so if the 2026 free-admission window ends on Saturday, September 26, the first non-holiday day after it would not be Sunday the 27th. Where the closure actually lands depends on where the notice sets the end of the window, and that is the single most useful thing to check once it posts: what range it covers, and which day follows it.
What Else Changes (and What’s Still Unclear)
A few more changes are confirmed, at least in part, and worth a shorter mention.
Gyeongbokgung’s night opening runs through the holiday — but its tickets for that window were already gone weeks out. The 2026 second-half night opening (야간관람) runs September 2 through October 2, 19:00–21:30, closed only Mondays and Tuesdays. All three Chuseok dates fall outside that weekly closure, so it’s scheduled to run normally through the holiday. According to a report dated August 31, 2026, tickets for the entire September 23–27 window were already sold out, with no additional release planned at that time, though a handful of weekday dates elsewhere in the run reportedly still had availability. Visitors wearing hanbok enter free regardless of nationality, and 300 same-day tickets are set aside daily for foreign visitors. That sold-out figure is an August 31 snapshot from a single news report, not a live count — we have not re-queried the ticketing system since, and availability shifts day to day. Check Gyeongbokgung’s own ticketing page close to your travel date.
Large discount marts shift their mandatory closure day to land on Chuseok. E-Mart, Homeplus, and Lotte Mart typically close two Sundays a month under local ordinance. In September 2026 the first closure (Sept 9) stays put, but the second is reported to move from the 23rd to Chuseok Day itself, September 25. Costco closes on January 1, Seollal, and Chuseok as a standing company policy, regardless of the ordinance. Because those closure days are set by district ordinance, coverage may vary — treat this as the general Seoul pattern rather than a guarantee for every store. Convenience store chains are unaffected by either rule, which makes them the reliable fallback.
Department store hours are not something we can confirm for 2026. Branches of Lotte, Shinsegae, and Hyundai have followed different patterns in past years — some closing the day before and the holiday itself, others the holiday and the day after — and there’s no citywide rule. The only branch-specific schedules we found were for 2025, and reusing those dates would be inaccurate. Check the individual store’s own holiday notice.
Getting to the Free-Admission Sites
None of these sites needs special holiday transit. A T-money card or a multi-day Climate Card covers fares exactly as it would on any other day, and the Seoul subway network reaches all four palaces and Jongmyo directly. Google Maps’ walking and transit directions are unreliable in Korea, so set up Naver Map or Kakao Map before you go, and keep Kakao T as a backup. If a meal stop falls through because a smaller restaurant is closed for the holiday, convenience store chains stay open regardless.
What You Need to Know
- The 2026 Chuseok free-admission notice wasn’t posted as of September 2, 2026. Confirm it on the Royal Palaces and Tombs Centre’s own site before building a schedule around it — the three-cycle pattern is strong, but it isn’t official for this year yet.
- Free admission, once confirmed, covers the four main palaces, Jongmyo Shrine, and the Joseon royal tombs — not Changdeokgung’s Secret Garden. Book and pay for the Secret Garden separately regardless.
- Jongmyo’s Chuseok change is a fee waiver, not new access. Public holidays already unlock ₩1,000 self-paced walk-through at Jongmyo; Chuseok’s notice, based on past cycles, is expected to make that free.
- The National Museum of Korea and National Folk Museum close completely on Chuseok Day (Sept 25, 2026), not the whole three-day window — both are open on Sept 24 and 26.
- A full closure has followed the end of each of the last three free-admission windows, not simply a return to normal paid admission. It falls on the first non-holiday day after the window — and since Sunday counts as a public holiday in Korea, that isn’t necessarily the calendar day after the holiday ends.
- Gyeongbokgung’s night opening runs through the holiday, but its Sept 23–27 tickets were sold out as of August 31, 2026. Check current availability before counting on it.
- Large discount marts are reported to move their second September closure day to fall on Chuseok Day (Sept 25). Costco is closed that day regardless, on its own standing policy.
Practical Tips
- Check the palace notice board before you finalize a Chuseok itinerary. As of September 2, 2026, this year’s free-admission announcement hadn’t posted — the pattern points to “yes,” but it isn’t official yet.
- Don’t put a museum visit on Chuseok Day itself. The National Museum of Korea and National Folk Museum are both closed September 25, 2026 — schedule museum time for September 24 or 26 instead. It’s those two specifically, not the whole museum category.
- Book Changdeokgung’s Secret Garden the normal way, even during free admission. It’s been excluded from every free-admission window so far, in some form.
- If Gyeongbokgung’s night opening matters to your trip, check ticket availability early. The September 23–27 window was already sold out as of late August in 2026; wearing hanbok gets you in free regardless of the timed-ticket situation.
- Expect a full closure once the free-admission window ends, not a normal paid day. It lands on the first non-holiday day after the window, which — since Sunday is a public holiday in Korea — may not be the day right after the holiday.
- If a specific department store’s hours matter to your plan, check that store directly. There’s no single citywide rule, and last year’s dates don’t carry over.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do the palaces really go free during Chuseok in Seoul?
Based on the last three cycles — 2024 Chuseok, 2025 Chuseok, and 2026 Seollal — yes, the four main palaces, Jongmyo Shrine, and the Joseon royal tombs have opened free of charge for the length of each holiday. As of September 2, 2026, though, the Royal Palaces and Tombs Centre hadn’t posted the official 2026 Chuseok notice yet. The pattern is strong enough to plan around, but it isn’t confirmed for this specific year until the notice goes up — check the Centre’s own site close to your visit.
Is Jongmyo Shrine’s reservation system suspended during Chuseok?
Not exactly, and the more precise answer matters if you want to understand the rule rather than just follow it. Jongmyo already allows free, self-paced walk-through (for a ₩1,000 fee) on any public holiday, which every Chuseok day already is — so the reservation system was never really “on” for that day the way it is on an ordinary Monday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. What Chuseok’s notice adds, based on past cycles, is waiving that ₩1,000 fee, not unlocking access that wasn’t already there.
Is Changdeokgung’s Secret Garden free during Chuseok too?
No — the Secret Garden (Huwon) has been excluded from the free-admission scope in every cycle checked so far (2024, 2025, and the 2026 Seollal round). The exact wording of the exclusion has varied year to year, but the practical result has been the same: book and pay for the Secret Garden separately, even during the window when the rest of Changdeokgung is free.
Is the National Museum of Korea open during Chuseok?
On two of the three days, yes — but it’s closed completely on Chuseok Day itself. For 2026, that’s a closure specifically on September 25; the museum runs its normal hours on September 24 and 26. The National Folk Museum follows the same closure pattern.
Can I still book Gyeongbokgung’s night opening during Chuseok?
The night opening (2026 season: September 2–October 2) is scheduled to run on all three Chuseok dates, since none of them fall on the Monday or Tuesday closure days. As of an August 31, 2026 report, however, tickets for the September 23–27 window were already sold out with no additional release announced at that time. Visitors wearing hanbok enter free regardless of the ticket situation, and 300 same-day tickets are set aside daily specifically for foreign visitors.
Are grocery stores and marts closed on Chuseok Day in Seoul?
Large discount chains — E-Mart, Homeplus, Lotte Mart — are reported to shift their second mandatory closure day of September 2026 onto Chuseok Day (Sept 25) itself, under the local ordinance that already requires two closure Sundays a month. Costco closes on Chuseok as a standing company policy, separate from that ordinance. Coverage may vary somewhat by district, since mandatory closure days are set locally. Convenience store chains are unaffected by either rule and remain a reliable fallback.
Has the Korean government announced the 2026 Chuseok free-admission dates yet?
Not as of September 2, 2026, when we checked the Royal Palaces and Tombs Centre’s notice board and Jongmyo’s visiting-information page directly. The last three cycles have followed an identical pattern — free admission to the four main palaces, Jongmyo, and the royal tombs, with the Secret Garden excluded — so the expectation is strong, but it wasn’t yet an official 2026 announcement at the time this was written.
Related Questions
- How to Visit Jongmyo Shrine: Entry Rules by Day and Language
- Gyeongbokgung Tickets in 2026: Free Days, Closures, and the Hanbok Rule
- National Museum of Korea: Free Entry, New 2026 Hours, and What to See First
- Changdeokgung Secret Garden: The Booking Rules English Guides Missed
