Korean Weddings - A journey mixed with Love & Culture

A wedding generally refers to a beginning of a new relationship along with his/her life partner which lasts till death. So basically, marriages in Korea are considered as not only the union between the groom and bride but also it is considered as a union between two families. Usually, a typical Korean wedding takes a timespan of three months which includes all the pre marriage and post marriage ceremonies. In recent times people prefer modern marriages over traditional marriages as these marriages are more convenient.

The pre wedding celebrations in old Korean traditions include Honsimari and Engagement celebrations. Honsimari refers to matchmaking where the father of the groom or any representative from the groom’s side takes the gifts and alcohol and delivers them to the bride’s family. If that’s accepted, the rest will carry over in the engagement celebrations which is organised by the groom’s family with their close relatives and friends and also the bride’s family abide by the date, format and registration of marriage.

Generally, in Korean weddings, a lot of ceremonies take place. Some of the important ceremonies include Jeon-an Rye, Paebaek, Kyo-bae-rye and Hap-geun-rye.

Jeon-an Rye: In this ceremony, the groom will give his Mother-in-law a wild-goose doll which represents his loyalty towards his wife and never let her go just like the geese. These geese symbolise 3 virtues in confucianism, which Korean culture is partially based on. Love, Manners and Legacy. Paebaek: This is a photo session of the wedding ceremony in which the bride and groom’s parents are invited along with some well wishers. They also have the practice of throwing chestnuts and dates towards the bride-groom. The chestnuts represent the boy child and the dates represents the girl child. It is believed that the amount of chestnut the couple catches, they will be blessed with the same amount of children.

Kyo-bae Rye: The couples used to wash their hands which symbolizes the purification of body and soul before the ceremony. Hap-geun Rye: In this ceremony, the couples take pledges to the heavens that they won’t give up their relationship at any cost and that pledge is fulfilled by alcohol which is provided in the copper cup. The bride and groom will drink from two separate halves of a gourd connected by a thread, from the same cup, or from a combination of both. This symbolizes the uniting of two people into one. When it comes to Wedding dress in Korea, most likely brides prefer to wear red hanbok or red Korean traditional clothing made of silk whereas the groom wears a blue hanbok. They prefer these two specific colors because it represents the circle with two colors which is present in the center of the Korean Flag.

Some of these traditions are even followed in modern weddings but not as formal as traditional weddings. Modern weddings in Korea take place in a wedding hall or banquets,

wherein the bride is dressed up in a white long wedding dress and the groom in a black tuxedo. Though the parents of the groom and bride still follow the same colour code dress. The family members introduce the groom and bride to their relatives and friends. When it comes to entertainment, Koreans prefer classic music along with Karaoke performance.

The practice of this newest trend of seu-deu-meh takes place in Modern Korean weddings which means studio-dress-makeup. The Korean couple takes wedding photos in their wedding dresses some weeks before the event but still they follow the Paebaek ceremony as a photography session on their date of wedding. Once after this Paebaek ceremony, the guests are led to the reception hall where the guests are served a meal. These modern weddings have the event of collecting money from the guests which is usually presented in a white envelope with the guest’s name. Though it’s not mandatory, people still follow this custom. The amount is usually presented to newly wedded couples as a complementary and also this money is collected and the visitor’s name is also noted because it also has another reason (i.e) returning back the money to the visitor either the same amount or more than that amount but not less than that.

The wedding & reception in Korea mostly follows the western traditions. The wedding ceremony begins with the entry of the mothers of the bride and groom followed by the groom. The bride walks in with her father, the oldest man in the family. Then the bride is handed over to the groom. The bride and groom exchange their wedding rings and take their wedding vows. After that the bride and groom greet the audience with deep bows. The reception includes the first dance of the groom and bride, throwing bouquet and after this the guests are served with their meals.

At the end of this banquet, the couple leaves to their home in the presence of the guests. Some of the traditional Korean wedding foods include Noodles, Yakshik or Yakbap and Dok. Koreans prefer Noodles in special occasions and they also symbolises longevity in life and marriage. Yaksik or Yakbap is similarly a medicinal food which is generally made of rice and nuts, honey, sugar and some spices. Dok is a sweet sticky rice that is served as a wedding dessert to the guests. In modern days these Dok is served along with the American style wedding cake which is mostly inspired by the Koreans.

One of the interesting facts about this Korean wedding culture is, the bride’s surname won’t be changed after the weddings. The reason for not changing their surnames is to maintain their family origins even after their marriages and also to avoid change of names in the official documents frequently.

Changes may happen in things from time to time and people willingly accept these changes as their boon. From this transition in weddings we could see that customs and traditions are neither entirely changed nor entirely abandoned. People pretend to follow the customs not as it is but atleast to follow and abide by things.

References

Limited, UPlanIt. “What Happens at a Korean Wedding? Korean Wedding Traditions.” Medium, 29 July 2020, uplanitlimited.medium.com/what-happens-at-a-korean-wedding-korean-wedding-traditions-60f6d62b518.

landscape, korea. “Wedding Tradition in Korea, Wife Don’t Take Husband’s Last Name!” Korealandscape - Explore Korea’s Magical Culture!, 27 Oct. 2021, korealandscape.net/wedding-tradition-in-korea.

Gogoi, Monami. “After K-pop, K-drama, K-food, Indian Fans Are Now Getting Married the Korean Way.” ThePrint, 18 Oct. 2022, theprint.in/features/after-k-pop-k-drama-k-food-indian-fans-are-now-getting-married-the-korean-way/1171852.

sergeygreen. “Korean Wedding Traditions. Complete Guide! - Sergey Green.” Sergey Green, 15 Nov. 2020, sergeygreen.com/korean-wedding-traditions.

“Asian Wedding Traditions – Interesting Facts About Weddings.” https://mybeautybrides.net, 6 June 2022, mybeautybrides.net/blog/asian-wedding-traditions.

Ginny. “Modern Korean Weddings.” Korean Language Blog | Language and Culture of the Korean-Speaking World, 7 Jan. 2010, blogs.transparent.com/korean/modern-korean-weddings.

“Korean Wedding Traditions: A Union of Two Families – Easyday.” Korean Wedding Traditions: A Union of Two Families – Easyday, 11 Sept. 2016, easyday.snydle.com/korean-wedding-traditions.html.

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