How to set up a table for ancestral rites
There must be many households holding ancestral rites in each house. Every holiday, and when the ancestral rites come around, I go to the big house and hold ancestral rites. Until now, I followed what the adults told me to do, but as I get older, I feel that I need to learn little by little. Unless it is a family where the ancestral rites are held countless times a year, such as the family house, there are usually at most three or four times a year. Curiously, I seem to forget the method or order of placing them every time I hold a ancestral rite. So this time, let’s take a look at how to set up the ancestral table.
How to set up a ancestral table
<How to set up the ancestral table>
1. Nam Jwa Yeo Woo (male left female right)
It is the opposite of the table setting of the living. Place the spoon in the center, the rice to the left and the soup to the right.
2. Banseo-Geng-Dong
The male ancestor’s ancestral table, rice, soup, and drinking cup are placed on the left, and the female ancestor is placed on the right. Male ancestors are on the left, female ancestors are on the right.
3. Eodong Yukseo (漁東肉西)
Put the meat on the left and the fish on the right.
4. Dudong Miseo
Tail to the left, head to the right.
5. Saengdongsukseo (生東熟西)
Place namul on the left and kimchi on the right.
6. Left Po Woo Hye
Pollacks such as dried pollack, cod, and squid are placed on the left side, and fermented foods such as sikhye and sujeonggwa are placed on the right side.
7. Tuning Lee Si (藻栗梨枾)
From the left side of the display, they are placed in the order of dates, chestnuts, pears, and persimmons.
8. Hongdongbaekseo
Red fruits are placed to the east and white fruits to the west.
How to set up a ancestral table
The food served on the ancestral table differs from house to house and from region to region. When it comes to fruits, apples and pears are always included, but they seem to add more seasonal fruits. Rice cake soup is served on Lunar New Year’s Day, and soup soup is served on Chuseok or ancestral rites. There are certain foods that should not be left out when preparing a table for ancestral rites, but rice, alcohol, jujubes, chestnuts, and water are said to be essential. And there are foods to avoid, and one is fish that ends in ‘chi’ (saury, hairtail, Spanish mackerel). It is said that this kind of fish is considered to be a common and humble fish. Also, peaches, red pepper powder, and garlic are said to drive away ghosts, so they are not offered on the ancestral table.
<order of turn>
Open the gate, put on a folding screen, and prepare for the ancestral rite. These days, many people live in multi-unit dwellings, so they often leave the front door slightly open. Jeju goes out in front of the deity, puts incense, pours alcohol into the cup, turns it over the incense burner three times, pours it into a moss bowl three times, and bows twice.
Everyone bows twice. It is said that women bow four times, but these days it seems that most of them only bow twice.
Jeju raises the first cup. Fill the sake cup with about 7 parts, and open the lid of the me (rice bowl). Everyone below the jeju kneels and the person reading the congratulatory message sits on the left side of the jeju and reads it. Jeju may read the congratulatory message.
How to set up a ancestral table
Since the second cup is to be raised by the first daughter-in-law, it is said that this part is often omitted in customary ancestral rites. Next, the last cup is raised during the coronation by an older adult. Finally, Jeju fills all the drinking glasses, inserts the spoons into the tongs, and arranges the chopsticks. Next, I leave my seat while my ancestors eat. After putting the sungnyung on top, take a little scoop and roll it in the sungnyung. After a while, take the spoon and put the lid on. Everyone bows twice and burns fat and congratulations. Clear the table and share the food.
The order is like this, but each house is a little different. In my house, I tend to bow twice after setting the table for ancestral rites and offering alcohol. The elders in the big house were Christians, so they burned candles instead of incense. In the case of daughters-in-law, they bow only at the first ancestral rite and do not bow well after that. Every house has a different culture, so I think you can follow what the adults are doing.
<Standard Draft for the Sungkyunkwan Charyes>
Not too long ago, around the Chuseok holiday, Sungkyunkwan, which has preserved traditional Confucian culture, announced that it was a standard plan for ancestral rites. According to the standard plan for an ancestor table announced by the Sungkyunkwan Ritual Establishment Committee, the basic foods for a simplified ancestor table are songpyeon, namul, grilled (red), kimchi, fruit, and alcohol. If you put a little more here, you can place meat, fish, and rice cakes. At Sungkyunkwan, the spirit of honoring ancestors is not limited to the number of foods, and they say that a maximum of nine is enough. It is also said that there is no need to fry or fry food in oil. It is said that laws such as Hongdongbaekseo and Jogyulisi, which were thought to be etiquette, are expressions that do not exist in old documents.
Standard plan for Sungkyunkwan rites
When this kind of story comes out, I think those who have been holding ancestral rites according to the etiquette will be confused. In fact, there is no correct answer to what is called an ancestral rite, so I think each of us should live according to the culture of our own house. And recently, there is a growing trend in the number of houses where ancestral rites are simplified or omitted altogether.
Soon the sun will change and the Lunar New Year will return. I hope you are all doing well and have a happy family. Thanks for reading.