Korea 16 July 2003 김대호

[콜리]

Meaning of wedding

First, it has a basic purpose to preserve the life cycle.
Second, it has a basic purpose to make a sacred bond between the groom and the bride.
Third, it has a basic purpose to become a family that acts as one communal life.
Forth, since it is a big part of human life, it follows a structure that emphasizes both seriousness and sacredness.

Characteristic(feature) of korean wedding

First, 남귀여가(男歸女家) : it means that they are married in the woman's house.
Second, when they got married between the period of the ancient age to 조선 dynasty, either the man lived in woman's parents' home(부처제(婦處制)) or the woman lived in man's parents' house(부처제(夫處制)).
But, beginning of mid-1700s, women have lived in the house of the grooms.


Procedure of wedding

first) 의혼(議婚)
It is a procedure that both houses of the groom and the bride discuss nuptials(wedding) with each other.

There are three steps in 의혼.
first) 중매(matchmaking, arranged marriage)
Both houses put up matchmakers and make them investigate each other's family, scholarship and personality.

second) 궁합(marital harmony)
After parents take a marital harmony from fortuneteller, they decide if their son and daughter should be married or not.

third) 의혼
It is accomplished through sending a letter from the groom's house proposing a marriage and bride's house sending an answer agreeing on the marriage.

Second, 납채
It is a procedure after 의혼, that the groom's house sends a 사주(the date of birth) and asks 연길 from the bride's house.



What is 사주?

When they receive a letter agreeing on the marriage from the bride's house, The groom's house writes back a 사주 of the man and 납채문, which are wrapped in a traditional Korean cotton cloth and sent to the bride's house.

What is 연길?

The bride's house, which receives a 사주, also gets the date of wedding from the fortuneteller and writes the date in a white paper and wraps it with 연길 letter, These are sent to the groom's house.

Third, 납폐
Before the day of the wedding, the groom's house sends a box of marriage materials including bride's marriage dress, a letter of wedding and the list of wedding gifts to the bride's house.

So, there are three things in the box of marriage materials.

first) 예물(matters for the marriage)
Generally, there are either two suits of coats(korean jaket) with a suit of blue and red skirt, or three suits of coat with two suits of skirt in the box. There are two ways of wrapping the gifts. One is to wrap a blue cloth in the red paper and tie it with a blue thread. Another way to wrap a red cloth in the blue paper and tie it with a red thread.

second) 혼서지
On this paper, they only write groom's and bride's hometown and the date of their births on both sides of the paper and wrap it in a black traditional korean cotton cloth with 금전지.
금전지 is Gold paper which is folded to create a triangle shape.

third) The box is covered by a red traditional korean cotton cloth equally on all side. But, they don't tie the cloth. And then, a paper called 근봉 is left on the top of the cloth. The box can be carried like a backpack which has two straps that are made out of cotton threads.





친영

It means that the man goes to the woman's house and gets married and brings her back to the man's house.



전안례(奠雁禮)
The man arrives to the bride's house with "a wild goose father" whose role is to give the wild goose to the bride's mother. This is a tradition. The reason why we give the wild goose, which is made out of a wood, is that it signifies a clean fidelity and oath(vow) of 백년해로.

교배례
It is that groom and bride meet each other for the first time in 초례정.
after that, they bow to each other in this ceremony and they promise 백년해로 with each other.

합급례
It is to drink alcohol in a cup and a gourd.
To drink alcohol in a cup means to form a relationship as a married couple and to drink alcohol in a gourd means to create their harmonies.

폐백례
After finishing the ceremony in one to three days, they go to the groom's house and prepare some foods and then they introduce themselves to the groom's parents and relatives as a husband and a wife by bowing to them.
Finally, they receive chestnuts and jujubes from the groom's parents. This signifies that the woman will have a boy.

 

늦어서 죄송합니다.^^;