Foreign Wives Add International Flavor to Traditional Festival

Foreign Wives Add International Flavor to Traditional Festival


By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter


A Filipino mother teaches her daughter how to make Korean pottery during the “Chusok” class at the National Folk Musuem of Korea, downtown Seoul, Monday. /Korea Times

Han Mi-na is just like any other Korean wife, busy with the many preparations for Chusok or Korean Thanksgiving holiday. This coming Chusok, Han will dress her two children in traditional hanbok, and help her mother-in-law and other family members prepare the dishes to be served.

Except the 32-year old Han is a Filipino wife married to a Korean, and has adopted a Korean name after gaining citizenship.

In an interview with The Korea Times, Han said she found it difficult at first to adopt the Korean traditions during her first Chusok in 2000. She had just arrived in Korea and she did not know anything about Chusok at all.

``It was hard to learn the ceremonies, and there is a lot of food to be cooked and prepared. But my mother-in-law was willing to teach me. So, after a while, I got used to the preparations such as making the ‘songpyong’,'' she said.

Chusok or the Korean Thanksgiving holiday is something many Koreans take for granted. But as more and more Koreans marry foreigners, there is an increasing international flavor to the celebrations. According to the Ministry of Justice, there are more than 80,000 foreigners married to Koreans as of this year.

On Monday, around 100 foreign wives attended a Chusok class at the Korea National Folk Museum. The wives, who were from China, Philippines, Vietnam and Uzbekistan, enthusiastically joined the class to learn about Korean customs and how to make traditional pottery and songpyong, the rice cake eaten during Chusok.

The class, which was conducted in Korean, is part of efforts to make foreign wives become more integrated in Korean society.

Unfamiliar Traditions

How does it feel for foreign wives to participate in traditions so unfamiliar to them?

The experiences vary, but most foreign wives are willing to accept these traditions and adopt them as their own.

While most of the traditions are unusual, Han said the ``seongmyo'' or visit to ancestral graves is quite similar to the Filipino tradition of visiting the graves during All Saint’s Day or Nov. 1 in the Philippines.

Also in keeping with tradition, Han said she dresses her two young children in the traditional hanbok during Chusok. ``It is very different from the Philippines, but I’ve learned to adjust to it,'' she said.

On the other hand, Razel Kim, a Filipino wife who lives in Ilsan, said she would like to dress her own children in hanbok, but her husband does not want to. “My family is very simple, they don’t wear the traditional clothes. I wanted to dress my kids in hanbok, but my husband doesn’t like it,” Kim told The Korea Times.

Foreign wives are also amazed at the amount of work involved in preparing the food for the ancestor-memorial service or charye, which is done during the early morning of Chusok day.

Laila Geromo, a 23-year old Filipino wife, said she had to learn how to prepare the ancestor memorial rites. ``We have to prepare so many dishes like chapchae, songpyong and other dishes the night before. Then, we have to wake up early for the ceremony and after, we would welcome the guests,'' she told The Korea Times.

Another unusual thing for foreign wives is the gift giving during Chusok, which they say is similar to the gift giving they are used to during Christmas.

Kim, who works as an English teacher, said she would have to buy gifts for her husband’s relatives and to share in the expenses for the Chusok celebration.

``It’s every family’s responsibility to share in the expenses. When we visit my mother in-law, we have to give her money as a gift,'' she said.

Despite all the preparations involved for Chusok, Kim said she is quite happy with the way Korean families come together and celebrate during the holidays.

On the other hand, there are some foreign wives who do not celebrate Chusok at all. An Australian wife, who did not want to be identified, said her husband does observe Chusok the traditional way, since her parents-in-law have passed away. This holiday, she and her husband are going on a trip abroad.


cathy@koreatimes.co.kr
10-03-2006 18:45

All the Performing Arts From the Globe

The Peach Blossom Fan (Tohwason)

This opening piece of the BESETO festival is also part of the program for SPAF. The Chinese Jiangsu Province Kunqu Opera presents Kunqu, the oldest extant form of Chinese opera, for the first time in Korea. UNESCO lists Kunqu as one of the masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity in May 2001.

Set in the late Ming Dynasty, it’s not only a love story between a literary aristocrat and a courtesan, but it also outlines the downfall of the dynasty. About 40 actors, some of them winners of prestigious Cherry Blossom Prizes in China, and an orchestra present a solemn performance. To be staged on Oct. 7 at the National Theater of Korea and on Oct. 10-11 at Uijeongbu Arts Center in Kyonggi Province. Tickets are from 15,000 won to 40,000 won. Korean subtitles provided.

Three Beautiful Soulmates

The piece marks the 20th anniversary of the street theater troupe Yonhee, led by renowned stage director and playwright Lee Yoon-taek, this year.

Mongolian forces attack Koryo Kingdom under King Kojong (1213-1259), and the following political chaos lead three young intellectuals at that time to pursue three different paths. Manjun becomes a stepson of the powerful Choi Woo, while Gilsang takes part in a rebellion and gets killed in an attempt to kill Choi. Tongsugi begins writing the Palman Taejanggyong, or 8 million Buddhist texts.

website for the 13th BESETO Theater Festival