BY FITRI JAMARI
Tradition of Funeral Ceremonies
in South Korea
As a country that has a strong culture and tradition, South Korea also has a tradition called funeral ceremonies that are still held today. If in Malaysia there are traditions of 3-7-40 daily prayer, recitation, and others, in Korea it also has its own traditions that are no less interesting!
The funeral and final honors of someone who died in Korea today are often carried out in a funeral home that is usually found in hospitals, insurance companies or funeral home rental companies, not the private home of the deceased or his family. The ceremony is usually held for three days.
The clothes worn by the deceased's family in ancient times were white hanbok and hats made of hemp, but now only enough to use all-black clothes with hemp hats or arm-bands and wear black ribbons on the chest or arms.
For mourners, they are also required to wear black clothes / suits. After entering, the mourner turns on the incense on the front desk of the deceased's chest, then bends before the photograph of the deceased and his family and expresses his blessing. When going to leave, mourners also put money in an envelope to the place provided.
On the third day, traditionally a chest containing the deceased will be buried in a place prepared by the family. After the coffin is lowered, one of the families will throw the ground three times to the chest and then the case is completely covered with the ground.
Since Korea is a small State, the land for funerals is getting diminished. For that reason, most Korean people today choose to cremate their deceased family instead of burying them. Criminals "trends" for all walks of life have begun to be popular since the 20's, because previously cremated was only done by poor people who could not afford to buy tombs. The crematorium ash is usually placed in containers and placed in a building dedicated to keeping the gray from the dead person to remain accessible at any time.
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