Comments on: Happy Chuseok and a Guide to Charye

By: fatmanseoul

fatmanseoul — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:47:03 +0000

It’s not usually that clear. Lots of families head clan house isn’t in the same place as their clan affiliation would seem to indicate. Nonetheless, as far as being a Gyeongju Kim or anything like that goes . . . you’d only maintain that kind of relationship with the head house if you were fairly direct in terms of lineage. That’s a very small group usually, but yes, often those families have very elaborate rituals. There are also guide books directing people how to set up the jesa and charyesang, but in many cases it’s the women, not the men, who do the set-up (just like they do everything else during the holidays!) Usually women learn set up directly from their mother-in-law and women of the senior generation, and they can usually do it from memory – particularly in families where jesa and charye are frequent. Most people learn the proper procedures used in their family through observation and participation.

By: fatmanseoul

fatmanseoul — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:41:21 +0000

we’re assuming you’re talking about your own family’s ceremonies, here . . .

By: 3gyupsal

3gyupsal — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 06:44:54 +0000

Has anyone else heard of how families keep their individual rituals at a training place from where their family name originated? For example if you are the 30th generation of the milyang Park family, there might be some kind of Hanoak that your family built in Milyang, where the oldest son from each family has to go and learn his famly’s tradition for arranging food on the table. Has anyone heard of anything like that?

By: Joseph Steinberg

Joseph Steinberg — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 06:17:44 +0000

The composition of the table has never changed, except for minor substitutions for seasonal availability, for jesa and charye. For some reason a few years ago makkeoli substituted for soju. Only for New Year’s is there any variation in the charye, when all the married couples have to make an offering. The rest of the year, it’s a stripped-down ceremony.

By: fatmanseoul

fatmanseoul — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:46:11 +0000

We wouldn’t be surprised in the least ^^ There’s tremendous variation in jesa and charyesang, with differences among regions and individual families.

By: fatmanseoul

fatmanseoul — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:43:11 +0000

or they can look at the first picture on this page although technically this isn’t a jesasang, because it’s not a jesa. It’s a charyesang, but much the same in terms of set-up.

By: Joseph Steinberg

Joseph Steinberg — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 11:00:09 +0000

Readers can view an actual jesasang here, from my family’s table in Busan – my wife’s family is originally from Gangwon. (The second photo is mine.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesa

By: Paul / samedi

Paul / samedi — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:34:05 +0000

As indicated in your second picture, I've often read / heard that red food is presented to the east and white food to the west. Similarly, meat is often placed to the east and fish to the west. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the latter is one of those areas where each family has a slightly different interpretation. There's also an image available here (scroll down a ways) that includes the names of the various utensils used to prepare the jesa table offering. 추석 잘 보내세요~!! ^^