Wedding Traditions in Korea

The wedding traditions in Korea more known as taerye is the process of joining two families rather than two individual. In the past in Korea there are custom that separated meeting between men and women since they are seven years old, so they meet firstly when they married. The marriage can not be separated from a matchmaker that be an intermediary between two families and be a fortune teller that see the match between the two pairs by calculating the fortunes of each other, known as saju or four pillars and the views of the year, month, date and hour of birth of each of the prospective bride to how fortune would happen if they are married, and the process called with kunghap. If calculation of kunghap give good result, the next process is decide the time to marry, and it is known as napchae. The next process is called with chungmae, parents of them to give approval to marry.

Some days before the wedding ceremony, family of the groom gives a gift for family of the bride that called with napp’ae. The kinds of the gift are honseo (marriage letter), ch'aedan is two blue and red cloth for the fabric that symbolizes the balance of yin-yang style, and honsu-collection of jewelry for the bride from the prospective in-laws are packed in a box (ham) which delivered by the groom’s close friends and this process is done at night.

The wedding ceremony take place at bride’s house and it starts with exchanged greetings with each other and bent, this is called with gyobaerye. It is to symbolize the promise and commitment by both bride and groom to undergo ark household together. This is done by both of them and stood facing each other in marriage between a table filled with various objects that symbolize hope for a lasting marriage, ranging from red and blue yarn, candles, red beans, rice to a pair of mandarin ducks. The second step is hapgeunrye where they will drink from the same cup, to symbolize that each other  is a half from the other and should complement each other to make one. Then they will be paired to then bowed together three times: one for the second pair of parents, one for the ancestors and one time for the guests. The groom then spent the night at the bride's house.

The next day, the bride and groom went to the groom's parents. On this occasion, the groom's parents will throw some foods and fruits that captured the bride and groom using a stretch fabric. Types of food and fruits are thrown symbolizes the groom's parents desire for grandchildren for parents and children for the second course, the newly married couple.