Korean traditional funeral

A Korean traditional funeral is similar to a Chinese traditional funeral but with its unique features from Korean Confucianism.

Funeral rituals

Traditionally, the body will stay in the house for three, five or seven days, depending on the season. One of the relatives would take a coat of the deceased to the roof and call the dead’s name three times before the coat was taken back as a cover for the corpse to conduct the ritual "kobok". The family of the dead will prepare three bowls each of rice, vegetables, soups and set out three units of money and three pairs of shoes outside the entrance of the house to the messengers from the other world. The eldest son will go find a tomb in a mountain and his wife will be responsible for the food for funeral, and also the relatives of the family will come to help making arrangements and cook food for the guests.

Also, the corpse will be washed in incense water and dressed in grave clothes. Then, after plugging cotton in the ears and nose of the dead and placing coins over the eyes, the mouth will be filled with three spoonfuls of rice. The body will be bound from head to foot with shrouds in seven layers and put in a coffin, which is bound in three places by long strips of cloth, with a mattress under the body, blanket covering the body and the deceased’s clothes filled in other spaces.

During the Imperial period, for a royal funeral, servants needed to make decorative instruments like thick paper, wood, straw mats and cotton fabrics for the funeral ceremony.

It is also believed that, as a deceased individual is taken in a coffin from their house to the burial site, that the threshold of the door by which they leave the house represents the boundary between this world and the afterlife.

Korea became a colony of Japan in August 1910, and in June 1912 the Japanese Governor-General announced the “Ordinance to control graves, crematories, burials and cremation” (jap. Bochi kasō maisō oyobi kasō torishimari kisoku), which instituted public cemeteries and cremation. As Biontino notes, "These policies aimed at improving health and hygiene, but they were also deemed necessary out of a concern for space: much arable land was occupied with graves," although by doing so, "Japanese authorities challenged not only secular problems, but also attacked the spirituality of the Koreans." As Han also notes, "public cemeteries were incompatible with the burial practices that permeated Korean society at that time," and in fact "this dissonance between the stipulations of the Ordinance and resilient local beliefs triggered the masses’ wish for specially selected graveyards, which facilitated the overall expansion of the Fengshui-related professions."

Burial rituals

The first step of preparing for burial is bathing the corpse with perfumed water and dressing it in the traditional death dress made of silk or sambe hempen fabric. Then, the corpse is wrapped up in a hemp quilt and bound with ropes seven times. After the corpse is fully dressed, the coffin's lid will be tightly sealed and placed in a dry and secure place within the house.

The second step is transporting the coffin to the grave site, which is determined by a geomancer. Those who carry the bier out of the house have to stop before the gate and lower the coffin three times as a form of ritual bowing. The procession is led by someone who sings the mournful song and the other family members, relatives and friends follow at the back.

After that, the burial is started. A shaman will perform a special ritual to exorcise the evil spirits from grave after arriving at the grave site. Then, the coffin is lowered and the eldest male mourner takes a deep bow and stands on top of the coffin, treading down on the earth as it is thrown into the grave, followed by the other family members.

Finally, the grave is completed by building a mound of soil and covering it with grass.

Mourning rituals

Many Korean traditional ceremonies are influenced by Confucian culture. The following methods and requirements of mourning are one such example.

First, people should be mourning for three years during which time Jesa ceremonies must be held, because when their parents died it reflects their filial. It is the most important sentiment in Confucian culture.

Second, during the funeral, the female family members must be continuing to weep and demonstrate their grief. People believe this performance proves the importance and value of the deceased. However, men are not allowed to cry at the funeral and are required to control their emotions. In traditional Korean culture, the image of a male should be rational and calm, and female is emotional and sensitive. Therefore, the male must restrain his sadness.

Third, the relatives and friends will write a funeral oration to mourn the deceased and express their grief. This not only details the life of the deceased, but also praises his merits and achievements. It reflects the culture and history of the whole family of the deceased. Consequently, the oration is very formal. It can be written as a biography, epitaph or a letter to the deceased.

Contemporary funerals

Today, these funeral traditions are upheld with a modern twist. The two prominent changes concern the venue of the funeral and the method of body disposal. Traditionally, death occurs at home. When people are hospitalized with serious illness, every effort is made to bring them home to die and thus keeping their spirits from wandering and becoming disoriented. Nowadays, most hospitals are equipped for holding funerals, transforming the mortuary into a funeral hall to allow for the following cremation. Funeral shops in hospitals often offer one-stop funeral services to satisfy every need of the client.

Since class distinction has declined, Koreans today seldom decide funeral dates based on the deceased’s social status, and rather tend to hold the funeral on the third day after death. In modern Korean funerals, no eulogies are held. Visitors bow twice to the deceased and once to the mourner with words of condolences to show respect. Various delicacies and wine are served to the visitors. Instead of burial, cremation, which has a shorter period of bodily decay, is more commonly practiced nowadays.