명절 · Area of life

Holidays & Rituals

Chuseok, Seollal, ancestral rites, birthdays and the milestones Koreans mark.

Ancestral rites

A real charye table set for an ancestral rite, with rice cakes, fruit, fish and candles in front of a painted folding screen

제사

제사: Korean ancestral rites, and why so many families are simplifying them

What 제사 and 차례 are, why the table has so many rules (and which ones Korea's Confucian headquarters says you can drop), how the bowing works, who ends up frying all that jeon, and what to do if you're invited to one.

A single white chrysanthemum against a black background, the flower of mourning in Korea

조문

Korean funeral etiquette: what to wear, how to bow, how much to give and what to say

A calm, step-by-step guide to paying respects at a Korean funeral hall: the three-day funeral, the black clothes, the incense or chrysanthemum, the two bows, the envelope (부의금), the meal, and the words that help (and the ones that don't).

Birthdays & milestones

A Korean baby in a pink and white hanbok holding a small book, in front of a painted folding screen

돌잔치

Doljanchi: the Korean first-birthday party where a one-year-old picks their future

Why Koreans throw a huge party for a baby's first birthday, what's on the traditional table, what each item in the doljabi grab means, how a modern doljanchi runs, and what to give now that a gold ring costs as much as a laptop.

Big ideas in this area

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