Comments on: Gwon Family Ancestral Memorial Rites

By: Nic (MyKoreanHusband)

Nic (MyKoreanHusband) — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 06:33:00 +0000

In reply to Tiffany Burnett. It is really interesting, and shows that it doesn't have to be so patriarchal. Thank you for your comment :)

By: Tiffany Burnett

Tiffany Burnett — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 23:07:00 +0000

Something interesting about Korea is that it wasn’t until the mid-chosen era that they made it an all male thing. There are inheritance documents that go back to that time period that show that women were treated on the same level as men. When inheritance time came around they would write these documents to split the inheritance among the children. These documents show that the daughters were given an inheritance, and not only were they given an inheritance they were given an equal inheritance with the rest of their siblings. The reason this was, was because of the ancestral rights they would perform. Later, in the Chosen era it moved to the Eldest son’s house and they would hold the ancestral rights but before it would rotate between the siblings houses and even the daughters would host the ancestral rights sometimes. So, even though it changed to being that the male would inherit everything and they would be the one to host the ancestral rights every time, it used to be that the daughters had equality in Korea. That’s one of the most interesting things about Korean history was that it used to be like that.

By: James and Brooke

James and Brooke — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 03:55:00 +0000

Although wetoo find the death rituals in Korea is indeed fascinating, and we too have had the honor and privilege of participating in them during our visit, we also thought your own story of your ancestor really interesting as well. So much in fact that we do sincerely hope that you will elaborate further on her in some postings in the near future. Now having said that however, we have heard from some friends of ours that there are some rituals to honor the dead in Australia as well without having to die in a war. One example is the belief among the aborigines that when one dies that their souls are said to go to the land of the “Dreaming Ancestors” provided that special dances and mourning songs are sung during a period of mourning. Now those Australians of european decent can and have been known to follow rituals from their ancestral homeland such as holding a wake, where the surviving descendants eat, drink and share stories of the deceased, and in some cases with the dead person present! And finally in these more modern times, there has been a rising popular ritual where the dead loved one is buried in a “green burial” where their remains are interred in a biodegradable coffin, with nothing non degradable is placed inside with no grave markers save for a gps locator. This way the surviving loved ones can still visit in order to pay their respects long after the remains have become “one with the land”. These are some of the many ways we heard that people in Australia have honored their dead.

By: eleanor

eleanor — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 04:29:00 +0000

This was really beautiful! Thank you for sharing. It has to be a really interesting experience to find one’s self immersed in cultural traditions and adapting and learning etc. And I really appreciate you both showing us more about it 🙂