Cultural Heritage Diaries: Wedding in South Korea

South Korean Traditional Wedding

Ceremony

The wedding event in Korea often called as Taerya (Great Ritual), where the marriage between a man and a woman represents the joining of two families, rather than the joining of two individuals. Steeped in traditional Confucian values, the ceremonies and events surrounding the actual marriage were long and elaborate, from the pairing of the couple to the rituals performed after the ceremony.

The parents of the bride and groom are entitled to invite whomever they please, often resulting in a guest count as large as 500! It is Korean tradition that the bride and groom wander the wedding venue to welcome each guest on their special day, this can often become a stressful task from the bride and groom. However, the groom may greet the wedding guests in one area while the bride has her own special room in which to greet her guests. Photos of the bride and her guests are also taken before the ceremony.

Korean Wedding Ritual

1) Pre-wedding performance

Samulnori

Traditional percussion quartet, literally means play of four

objects.
Four instruments and their meanings are:-

Kkwaenggwari (a small gong): thunder
Jing (a larger gong): wind
Janggu (an hourglass-shaped drum): rain
Buk (a barrel drum similar to the bass drum): cloud

Buchaechum

Korean traditional fan dance

2) Chin-young-rye (Bride’s family greets groom)

Groom enters the courtyard (wedding was usually held in bride’s family house) with girukabi (person leading the way with the wedding geese – best man).
The girukabi hands the geese to groom.

3) Jeon-an-rye (Presentation of wooden geese)

Groom place wild geese on a table and bowing twice to his mother-in-law.
Mother-in-law takes the wild geese into the house.

*The wild geese symbolizes harmony and love between husband and wife. Wild geese (it’s actually mandarin duck, to be exact) mate for life: they keep their promises of love and never find another, if they lost their partner.

4) Gyo-bae-rye (Facing each other and bowing)

The groom stands on the east, and bride walks to the west side of the wedding table.
The helpers (two each for bride and groom) wash the hands of bride and groom.
The helpers spread the mat on the yard for each other.
Groom bows, then the bride and groom stand on the mat, facing each other (bride holds her hands to cover her face).
First, bride bows twice and groom bows back once.
Bride bows twice again, then groom makes a deep bow and kneel down.

*The bowing represents the promise of commitment to each other.

*Bride’s bow is required to sit cross-legged on the floor and stand up. That’s why the helpers are the must!

*In the olden days when arrange marriage was the custom, the wedding ceremony was the first time bride and groom saw each other’s faces.

5) Hap-geun-rye (Combine the gourd dipper)

The helpers of bride and groom prepare drink (usually rice wine) and side dishes.
The groom bows, then bride and groom present drink and side dishes to the sky (to the greater existence who’s looking down on everyone).
The helpers pour the drink. After groom bows, bride and groom raise their cup.
The helpers fill the cup which made of gourd dipper and groom bows.
Bride and groom exchange gourd dipper.

*The two halves of gourd dipper represent the bride and groom to be one whole with one another.

6) Seong-hon-rye (Declaration of wedding)

Bride and groom bows to both families and guests.

Korean Wedding Customs

Traditional wedding ceremonies, with the elaborately costumed groom riding in a palanquin to the house of the bride to share ceremonial sips of wine at their first meeting are now seen only at the Folk Village.

Wedding are generally held either in a Wedding Hall or in a hotel, although an increasing number take place in churches. The marriage is not official until it has been registered at the local district office. During the ceremony, which last about 15 minutes at most, people may talk or leave to partake in the food that’s been laid out.

Guests bring money, not gifts, to the ceremony. At weddings, there is a table placed at the entrance where each guest is greeted and his gift accepted and even recorded for either the groom’s or the bride’s side. Some guests prefer to buy the couple household items such as electrical appliance, glasses, crystal, etc. and leave the wrapped package on the table on the day of the wedding. However, money is still the most common gift to give. Sometimes, a guest will bring both money and a gift.

The bills should be new and put in a special white wedding envelope. A regular white cash envelop can also be used. The amount of the gift depends on the guest's status. The manager of an office or one of the chief officers of a firm would be expected to give the largest cash gift.

Wedding attire for family is often traditional, but for everyone else almost anything goes. A safe rule-of-thumb is to wear 'business attire' or 'business casual'. You'll probably see women wearing white, black and all other colours. If there's a special theme, it may be on the invitation.

Wedding invitations can be both formal (printed) and casual (verbal). Koreans like to have a lot of people at their wedding and the verbal invitation isn't any indication of how important (or not) they think you are, nor is it a reflection of your relationship to the person inviting you.

The ceremony itself is more 'ceremonial' than legal. An important person (as opposed to a legal/religious official - unless in a church) officiates, but the marriage is not legal until the couple has registered the marriage with the government. This may have occurred earlier or it may be done some time later.