Changes of Contemporary Korean Funeral Rites

Recently Korea’s funeral culture has witnessed significant changes which can be explored using the theoretical perspective of the French theorist Ravaisson-Mollien to explain some key changes in ceremonies, including the type of the funeral rite, the type of cemetery, the use of the funeral home and other funeral customs. One of the most remarkable changes in modern Korean funerals is the transformation of ritual from burial to cremation. Also, due to some practices such as the「Act of the burial ground」, spaces in which life and death were traditionally integrated are now divided into two conceptually separate spaces- the city as a living space and the cemetery as a dead one. Furthermore, urbanization has brought about a conceptual change from death as a collective event to death as a personal and simplified ceremony. Principles of domestic ritual have been framed by a national law, and this has made the symbolic meanings of diverse ritual items fade away as a result of the formalization of authentic procedures. There are, however, many parts of Korea’s funerary customs which have been sustained, even though some traditional features have been changed. Also, Koreans continue to use two absolute propositions ‘( changes’and‘ continuances’), which prevent us from distinguishing between those items which are continued or changed. For instance, someone might say that the “simple version of mourning clothes in black suit and a hempen hood”is an externally changed feature, but it can be also interpreted as a continued version of a traditional mourner’s clothes. All in all we can conclude tha‘t continuance’is a prerequisite of‘ change.’