Chuseok falls on Friday 25 September this year, and the holiday runs from Thursday 24 September to Sunday 27 September. For those four days most neighbourhood clinics and most pharmacies in Korea are closed. Emergency rooms are not — they run exactly as they do on any other night — and in every district a rotating handful of clinics and pharmacies stays open. The catch is that nobody posts that list on the door. You have to look it up, and the looking up is much easier before you need it than at two in the morning with a fever.
This is written for people who are in Korea and are not Korean: visitors, students, workers, anyone whose Korean runs out somewhere around the word for “prescription”. It covers where to search, what the emergency room is actually for, what the law says about treating you, and what to do if you cannot pay that night. The dates and the closures themselves are in the companion piece on what is open and closed over Chuseok 2026.
The four days that matter
Chuseok is set by the lunar calendar, so the dates move every year. In 2026 they land like this.
| Date | Day | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| 24 September | Thursday | Day before Chuseok — public holiday |
| 25 September | Friday | Chuseok itself — public holiday |
| 26 September | Saturday | Day after Chuseok — public holiday |
| 27 September | Sunday | Ordinary Sunday |
| 28 September | Monday | Normal working day |
There is no substitute holiday this year. Korea grants one when a public holiday falls on a weekend, and here the third day of the holiday already falls on Saturday 26 September, so nothing is pushed into the following week. Monday 28 September is a normal working day, which matters if you are deciding whether something can wait. The full year is set out in the 2026 public holidays list.
What actually closes — and what does not
The pattern is fairly consistent across the country, and it is worth knowing which side of the line a given place sits on.
| Closed for most or all of the holiday | Open as normal |
|---|---|
| Neighbourhood clinics (internal medicine, ENT, paediatrics, dentists) | Emergency rooms at general hospitals |
| Most independent pharmacies | A rotating roster of holiday pharmacies |
| Hospital outpatient departments | Hospital inpatient wards |
| Public health centres | Designated paediatric night clinics |
| Most health screening centres | Convenience stores selling a short list of basic medicines |
The single most common mistake is to assume that because a hospital is large, its outpatient department will be open. It will not be. A big hospital over Chuseok means the emergency room, the wards, and very little else.
Start here: the portal that tells you what is open right now
Korea runs a public emergency medical portal called E-Gen, operated by the National Emergency Medical Center. It is the official source, it is updated for each holiday period, and it has a menu for emergency rooms, hospitals and pharmacies that are open at the time you are searching. Local governments publish their own district lists as well, and those are usually the same data presented differently.
Two practical notes. First, search by your district rather than by the name of a hospital you half remember — you want the nearest open door, not a specific brand. Second, phone before you travel. The listings are accurate about designation and far less reliable about whether a particular clinic decided to close early on the second day of the holiday.
If you only do one thing before 24 September, do this: search your own neighbourhood on the portal now, while you are well, and screenshot the two or three nearest results. A screenshot works when you are too ill to type and when the network is slow.
Pharmacies: how the holiday roster works
The Korean Pharmacists Association runs a dedicated service for exactly this problem, at pharm114.or.kr, which lists pharmacies that are currently trading, including late-night ones. It describes itself simply as being there to find you a pharmacy that is open now.
In practice, expect the open pharmacy to be attached to a hospital or sitting on a main road rather than tucked into your side street, and expect a queue on the morning of the 25th. If you take a regular prescription medicine, refill it before the 23rd. A pharmacy cannot dispense a prescription-only drug without a valid prescription, and getting a new prescription over the holiday means a clinic visit, which means finding an open clinic first.
When every pharmacy near you is shut
Korea allows a narrow list of basic medicines to be sold outside pharmacies, in retailers that are open 24 hours a year round — in practice, convenience stores. The Ministry of Health and Welfare designates the list, which currently runs to 13 items across four categories: fever and pain relief, digestive aids, cold remedies, and adhesive pain patches.
The rules attached to it are strict and they are enforced at the till:
- One package per transaction. You cannot buy a stack of fever reducer.
- No sales for children under 12. If the patient is a small child, this route is closed to you and you need the paediatric option below.
- The staff are not pharmacists and cannot advise you. They are permitted to sell, not to recommend.
It is enough to get a healthy adult through a night with a fever. It is not a substitute for care, and it is not a reason to delay when something is genuinely wrong.
If the patient is a child
This is the one case where Korea has built something specifically for holidays. The Ministry of Health and Welfare designates paediatric night and holiday clinics, known as “moonlight children's hospitals”, which see children in the evening and on public holidays. As of September 2026 there are 156 of them nationwide, they run every day of the year, and they stay open until midnight.
The ministry's own argument for using one instead of an emergency room is worth repeating, because it is the right argument: they are usually closer than the nearest large hospital, they cost less, you wait less, the doctor is a paediatric specialist, and your child is not sitting in a room where critically ill adults are being treated. The ministry also says plainly that you should confirm the opening hours with the hospital before you set off, which is good advice for any of this.
The emergency room: when it is the right call
Go to an emergency room without hesitating for chest pain, difficulty breathing, a serious head injury, uncontrolled bleeding, sudden weakness or slurred speech, a seizure, a suspected fracture, a burn of any size on a child, poisoning, or a fever in an infant under three months. Do not talk yourself out of it because it is a holiday.
For everything else, the emergency room is often the wrong door even when it is the only open one. Korean law is explicit that a hospital may transfer a patient who is not an emergency case to another institution, so arriving with a mild cough can mean a long wait followed by being sent elsewhere anyway. The waiting itself is the real cost: holiday emergency rooms are the busiest they get all year, and non-urgent patients wait behind everyone who is not.
Your rights do not depend on your passport
This is the part most visitors do not know, and it is written into the Emergency Medical Service Act rather than left to hospital policy. The Act states that every person has the right to receive emergency medical services when they need them, and, in wording added in an amendment promulgated on 7 April 2026, that the same applies to foreign nationals staying in Korea.
“국내에 체류하고 있는 외국인도 또한 같다” — foreign nationals staying in Korea are covered in the same way. Emergency Medical Service Act, Article 3.
Alongside it, Article 6 says that emergency medical personnel may not refuse or avoid providing emergency medical services without a legitimate reason. Refusal carries a criminal penalty. In plain terms: an emergency room cannot turn you away at the door because you are foreign, because you have no Korean insurance card, or because you cannot produce money up front. What it can do is assess you, treat you, and bill you afterwards — which is a different thing.
Being treated and being covered are separate questions. If you are on Korea's national health insurance, holiday treatment is billed as it always is, with a surcharge for out-of-hours care. If you are not, you are paying the full amount yourself, and travel insurance becomes the thing that matters. Students should check how health insurance works on a D-2 or D-4 visa; people here on a work visa injured on the job are in a different system again, covered in the piece on work injury insurance for foreign workers.
If you cannot pay on the night
There is a mechanism for this, and it is not charity — it is a statutory deferral. Under Article 22 of the Emergency Medical Service Act, a hospital that has provided emergency care and has not been paid can claim the unpaid amount from a national fund, which pays the hospital and then recovers the money from the patient afterwards. The state can pursue the debt, including by the procedures used for unpaid taxes, so this is a way of not being stopped at the cashier's desk on the night, not a way of avoiding the bill.
The important consequence for a patient is simple. The conversation about money happens after treatment, not before it, and there is no nationality condition written into the provision.
A note on behaviour in the emergency room
Holiday emergency rooms are crowded, tempers fray, and Korea treats violence in them far more seriously than most visitors expect. Obstructing emergency medical services or assaulting or threatening staff or a patient in an emergency room is punished under Article 60 of the Act, with penalties that rise steeply where injury results. It is worth knowing before a bad night gets worse: whatever the wait, do not put your hands on anyone.
Language: what actually works
The honest answer is that at three in the morning on a public holiday, your best tools are a translation app and a prepared note. Type out your symptoms, your allergies, your regular medications and any existing conditions into a translation app now and keep it saved. Hand the phone over. It works better than trying to explain in the moment.
The government's general helpline for foreign residents, 1345, is run by the Ministry of Justice and answers in 20 languages, but read its hours carefully before you rely on it: it operates on weekdays from 09:00 to 22:00, and after 18:00 only Korean, English and Chinese are available. Weekdays means weekdays, so across 24–27 September it is not the line to count on.
Larger university hospitals in Seoul and the other big cities usually have an international healthcare centre with English-speaking coordinators, though these are weekday services too. If you have a choice of emergency rooms and one of them is a major university hospital, that is the one to pick.
Two numbers to save now
| Number | What it is | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| 119 | Fire and emergency medical services | Ambulance, anything life-threatening. Free to call. |
| 129 | Health and welfare call centre | Asking which hospitals and pharmacies are open |
The second one is more useful over a holiday than its name suggests. During last year's Chuseok the 129 line handled an average of 1,158 calls a day, and 77 per cent of them — 889 calls — were people asking which hospitals and pharmacies were open. That is what the line is for during the holiday. Note that 119 and 129 are different services: 119 sends an ambulance, 129 gives you information.
A five-minute plan, done before the 24th
- Refill any regular prescription before Wednesday 23 September.
- Search your district on the emergency medical portal and screenshot the nearest emergency room and the nearest holiday pharmacy.
- If you have children, find your nearest designated paediatric night clinic and save its phone number.
- Put a small box together: fever reducer, rehydration salts, plasters, any medicine you personally rely on.
- Write your symptoms-and-allergies note in Korean in your translation app and keep it where you can find it.
- Check that your travel insurance paperwork is somewhere you can reach on your phone.
Frequently asked questions
Will an emergency room see me if I do not have Korean health insurance?
Yes. Treatment and payment are separate questions, and emergency medical personnel may not refuse care without a legitimate reason. You will be billed afterwards at the uninsured rate.
Are dentists open over Chuseok?
Almost never. Dental emergencies over a holiday usually mean an emergency room for pain relief and a dentist on the 28th.
Can I buy antibiotics at a convenience store?
No. The convenience store list is 13 basic items only — fever and pain relief, digestive aids, cold remedies and pain patches. Anything prescription-only requires a prescription.
My child has a fever on Chuseok evening. Emergency room or not?
If the child is under three months, or is lethargic, breathing oddly, or will not drink, go to an emergency room. Otherwise the designated paediatric night clinic is the better door, and they are open until midnight.
Is Monday 28 September a holiday?
No. There is no substitute holiday this year because the third holiday day falls on a Saturday. Clinics reopen normally on the Monday.
Will I be charged more because it is a holiday?
Out-of-hours and holiday care carries a surcharge in Korea, as it does in most systems. Emergency room care is more expensive than a clinic visit in any case.
The short version
Four days, from Thursday 24 to Sunday 27 September. Clinics and most pharmacies shut; emergency rooms and a rotating roster of pharmacies do not. Look up your own district on the emergency medical portal before the holiday starts and screenshot the results. Children go to a designated paediatric night clinic rather than an emergency room where that is an option — there are 156 of them and they run to midnight. The law gives you the right to emergency care whether or not you are Korean, and a statutory mechanism exists so that a hospital is paid even if you cannot pay on the night. Save 119 and 129. Refill your prescriptions by the 23rd.
The rest of the holiday is a good deal more cheerful than this piece suggests. If you are planning around it, there is what is free or discounted over Chuseok, how the train ticket scramble works, and, if you are working in Korea, what the law actually says about a Chuseok bonus.
