Jusok
I had a great weekend.
For Koreans this weekend, or better Sunday could be seen like for Germans Christmas. It's a big holiday to be celebrated with the whole family. On the other side, Koreans celebrate Christmas rather with friends than with the family.
Well, I had the great honor to participate in this celebration.
장히's family invited me to come to their place. I was welcomed really warmly by his parents, sister, two uncles with wifes, two aunts with husbands and all together seven cousins. 장히's dad is the oldest son, which is the reason, why the celebration took place at their home. Moreover usually only the brothers with family come. The sisters celebrate with their husbands' families. Since I was there, two of the actually five sisters also looked by with their families. So all together we were about 22 people. I really enjoyed that, since at my home we always celebrate these events only with the own family.
I also found a friend real quick. Eun-sue (8 years old) immediately lay off her shiness and wanted to get to know me. So I was for example asked about my hobbies... of course, this always had to be translated by my personal interpreter. :-) Thanks 장히. She is a really smart girl and I can understand why her parents are proud of her. She drew a real good picture, showed me how to play piano and sang really well in Norebang. I really like her. When we went for a quite long walk in the park of Ilsan, she didn't even complain, altough I could see that she didn't want to walk any more. The park of Ilsan is really pretty and big. When we went for a walk there, everybody was looking at us. Ilsan is not very big, so you can imagine, there are not as many foreigners as in Seoul.
I have to add, that at the beginning of my stay here, I liked the looks of the people, but now, after almost 2 months it's slowly getting annoying. Well, I'm just learning to ignore it.
OK, back to Jusok. After our long walk in the park, I was allowed to help the aunts cook. It was fun. I hope I can learn more about how to cook Korean food. 장히's mother said, I can come again when she is making Kimshi (typical traditional Korean food- I love it, and they loved me for that). Then we all ate and I could see that everybody was happy I liked the food so much. I told them, that primarily the Korean food was the reason why I came back here. After dinner 장히 and I washed the dishes. We even earned money for this from an uncle. They laughed when I explained, that I would also have done it for free. Well, by the time it was already about eight or nine and I was told, the ceremony of Jaesa, will be held at one a.m. So of course by then no metro would go back to Seoul. So surprisingly I was invited to stay over night. Well, since I really wanted to see the ceremony I agreed. At around 10 p.m. we went to Norebang with 장히's sister and seven small kids, three boys and four girls. The boys were a little bit pissed, because they wanted to go to a PC 방 (hope I spelled it the right way - it's a PC room) and they couldn't stand the songs the girls sang. I felt sorry for them, but 장히 said they have to learn it. Well, ok, I agree.
One hour later we were back home. All the kids were asleep by 1 a.m. except for the youngest one, who was running around all excited, even during the ceremony. Finally the men decorated the table with fruits. The interesting thing here was, that the order of the different fruits is fixed, depending on their color and the directions North, East, South and West. We made a picture, so maybe I can add that later some time. For the ceremony the oldest son begins to kneel down. Then his brothers and 장히 followed him. Women don't participate in this. They just watch. Well, the purpose of the ceremony is to invite the ancestors to share the food with the family and then to honor them and talk to them. Of course only in prayer. In order to let them in, the door of the apartment was opened. For me, all this was really interesting and exciting. After the praying, the ceremony was over and again we all ate. I ate so much that day, incredible. Afterwards, we said good-bye to all the relatives and we all went to bed. I almost felt at home. It was great.
So maybe it is not soo special to celebrate the Jusok with a Korean family, but in my opinion it's really something special to be able to make the experience and stay for Jaesa. I am soo glad and honored I could see this event.
I can recommend to everybody to come to Korea and experience the friendliness and warmth of Korean families. Even though I couldn't really talk to them, I could feel their positive and warm feelings.
I just saw, that during my last days here in Korea I will also be able to experience Sollal (New year, according to the lunar calendar). This year it will be on the 28th to 30th of January, so right before I leave.
Oh, I don't even want to think about that. It makes me sad.
Cultural thing:
The first son in a family is very important. He has to be successful in his future life. So a big pressure rests on his back. Many women don't like first sons, because then they have to invite relatives for events like Jusok and cook. They have a harder life than other Korean women. Well, that's what I've been told.
For Koreans this weekend, or better Sunday could be seen like for Germans Christmas. It's a big holiday to be celebrated with the whole family. On the other side, Koreans celebrate Christmas rather with friends than with the family.
Well, I had the great honor to participate in this celebration.
장히's family invited me to come to their place. I was welcomed really warmly by his parents, sister, two uncles with wifes, two aunts with husbands and all together seven cousins. 장히's dad is the oldest son, which is the reason, why the celebration took place at their home. Moreover usually only the brothers with family come. The sisters celebrate with their husbands' families. Since I was there, two of the actually five sisters also looked by with their families. So all together we were about 22 people. I really enjoyed that, since at my home we always celebrate these events only with the own family.
I also found a friend real quick. Eun-sue (8 years old) immediately lay off her shiness and wanted to get to know me. So I was for example asked about my hobbies... of course, this always had to be translated by my personal interpreter. :-) Thanks 장히. She is a really smart girl and I can understand why her parents are proud of her. She drew a real good picture, showed me how to play piano and sang really well in Norebang. I really like her. When we went for a quite long walk in the park of Ilsan, she didn't even complain, altough I could see that she didn't want to walk any more. The park of Ilsan is really pretty and big. When we went for a walk there, everybody was looking at us. Ilsan is not very big, so you can imagine, there are not as many foreigners as in Seoul.
I have to add, that at the beginning of my stay here, I liked the looks of the people, but now, after almost 2 months it's slowly getting annoying. Well, I'm just learning to ignore it.
OK, back to Jusok. After our long walk in the park, I was allowed to help the aunts cook. It was fun. I hope I can learn more about how to cook Korean food. 장히's mother said, I can come again when she is making Kimshi (typical traditional Korean food- I love it, and they loved me for that). Then we all ate and I could see that everybody was happy I liked the food so much. I told them, that primarily the Korean food was the reason why I came back here. After dinner 장히 and I washed the dishes. We even earned money for this from an uncle. They laughed when I explained, that I would also have done it for free. Well, by the time it was already about eight or nine and I was told, the ceremony of Jaesa, will be held at one a.m. So of course by then no metro would go back to Seoul. So surprisingly I was invited to stay over night. Well, since I really wanted to see the ceremony I agreed. At around 10 p.m. we went to Norebang with 장히's sister and seven small kids, three boys and four girls. The boys were a little bit pissed, because they wanted to go to a PC 방 (hope I spelled it the right way - it's a PC room) and they couldn't stand the songs the girls sang. I felt sorry for them, but 장히 said they have to learn it. Well, ok, I agree.
One hour later we were back home. All the kids were asleep by 1 a.m. except for the youngest one, who was running around all excited, even during the ceremony. Finally the men decorated the table with fruits. The interesting thing here was, that the order of the different fruits is fixed, depending on their color and the directions North, East, South and West. We made a picture, so maybe I can add that later some time. For the ceremony the oldest son begins to kneel down. Then his brothers and 장히 followed him. Women don't participate in this. They just watch. Well, the purpose of the ceremony is to invite the ancestors to share the food with the family and then to honor them and talk to them. Of course only in prayer. In order to let them in, the door of the apartment was opened. For me, all this was really interesting and exciting. After the praying, the ceremony was over and again we all ate. I ate so much that day, incredible. Afterwards, we said good-bye to all the relatives and we all went to bed. I almost felt at home. It was great.
So maybe it is not soo special to celebrate the Jusok with a Korean family, but in my opinion it's really something special to be able to make the experience and stay for Jaesa. I am soo glad and honored I could see this event.
I can recommend to everybody to come to Korea and experience the friendliness and warmth of Korean families. Even though I couldn't really talk to them, I could feel their positive and warm feelings.
I just saw, that during my last days here in Korea I will also be able to experience Sollal (New year, according to the lunar calendar). This year it will be on the 28th to 30th of January, so right before I leave.
Oh, I don't even want to think about that. It makes me sad.
Cultural thing:
The first son in a family is very important. He has to be successful in his future life. So a big pressure rests on his back. Many women don't like first sons, because then they have to invite relatives for events like Jusok and cook. They have a harder life than other Korean women. Well, that's what I've been told.
posted by Mel | 7:16 AM
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