FatManSeoul

Fatman just got back from a lovely jaunt to the ancestral digs for the lunar holiday, where we got down to the serious business of eating all that scrumptious Sollal food. Of course everybody has to eat some 떡국 (ddeokguk: rice cake soup) to get a year older( ok, nearly everybody; Fatman plans to gain eternal youth by skipping this tradition.) But, to get back to the meat of the matter, there was also some special foods that accompany 차례 (charye), the ancestral rites performed every New Year (and 추석/Chuseok).

This ritual isn’t quite the same as jesa (재사) although in form it is very similar. But jesa rituals are performed at regular intervals (usually by the lunar calendar) following the death of a specific family member. Charye are for a more collective group of ancestors stretching on back through time. They’re held at different times of day (jesa at night, charye in the mornings) and mean slightly different things, but both are important and look pretty darned similar in modern practice. And they both involve immense, crazy, gargantuan amounts of food.

How much food? Enough that prep can take days, even weeks. Enough that lots of Koreans skip the homework and order their food online (get your family ancestor worship needs met here, here, or here.) Women especially have taken to this innovation, seeing as however liberated they might be in their daily lives seem to become drafted for a few days of thankless servitude while the menfolk goof off for all but about ten minutes of incense burning, wine pouring, and bowing.
Strangely enough, there’s not a lot of consistency from region to region, household to household as to what food actually goes on the ancestral table. Some families always boil up an octopus, others set out a few bananas. There are a few general rules, however:
At the very back is a folding screen. Many families use a double-sided screen with colorful flowers or birds on one side for happy occasions like weddings, and calligraphy on the other for more solemn events like jesa and charye. In front of the screen is a large, low table set with a small shrine to hold pictures of the deceased or written prayers called a “shinui (신위). Also holding place in the back row are cups for alcohol, candles, rice, soup, and chopsticks. In the next row from the back you’ll find cooked dishes, particularly flesh, fowl, and fish. Next out are dried dishes like squid, and veggies. In the front are fruits, which can mean whatever is in season but almost always will include dates (대추/daechu), chestnuts, pears, and dried persimmons. There are all kinds of different ways to coordinate it including direction and color, but by now Fatman hopes you’ve got the basic idea. Just to compare, here are three different guide to how to set up your charye . . . good luck!

image from www.koreartnet.com

image from i.kdaq.empas.com

image from munhwa.com