Etiquette for Weddings and Funerals
Gyeongjosa refers to showing up for both the joyful and the sorrowful events in others' lives, an expression of the Korean sense of affection known as 'jeong.' Giving money in a white envelope is the central custom.
Weddings
Congratulatory money goes in a white envelope handed to the reception desk, with words like 'chuk gyeolhon' (congratulations on your marriage) or 'chugui' written on the front. Neat attire is expected.
๊ฒฐํผ ์ง์ฌ์ผ๋ก ์ถํ๋๋ฆฝ๋๋ค. ๋ ๋ถ ํ๋ณตํ๊ฒ ์ ์ฌ์ธ์.
gyeolhon jinsimeuro chukhadeurimnida. du bun haengbokhage jal saseyo.
Heartfelt congratulations on your wedding. May you both live happily.
์ถ์๊ธ์ ์ ์๋์ ๋ด์๊ณ ์๊ถ ๋ฐ์ผ์๋ฉด ๋ฉ๋๋ค.
chuguigeumeun jeopsudaee naesigo sikgwon badeusimyeon doemnida.
Hand the gift money to the reception desk and you'll get a meal ticket.
๋ฐฑ๋
ํด๋กํ์๊ธธ ์ง์ฌ์ผ๋ก ๊ธฐ์ํฉ๋๋ค.
baengnyeonhaerohasigil jinsimeuro giwonhamnida.
I sincerely wish you a long, happy life together.
Funerals
At funerals, wear black or dark clothing. Write 'buui' or 'geunjo' on the condolence envelope, bow twice to the deceased, and give a light nod to the bereaved family.
์ผ๊ฐ ๊ณ ์ธ์ ๋ช
๋ณต์ ๋น๋๋ค. ์ผ๋ง๋ ์์ฌ์ด ํฌ์ญ๋๊น.
samga goinui myeongbogeul bimnida. eolmana sangsimi keusimnikka.
I sincerely pray for the repose of the departed. How great your grief must be.
Condolence Procedure and Tone
At a funeral hall, stay quiet and composed. A short, sincere word of comfort is more fitting than a long speech.
๋ญ๋ผ ๋๋ฆด ๋ง์์ด ์์ต๋๋ค. ๋ถ๋ ๊ฑด๊ฐ ์ ์ฑ๊ธฐ์ธ์.
mwora deuril malsseumi eopseumnida. budi geongang jal chaenggiseyo.
I don't know what to say. Please take good care of your health.
Words on the Envelope
| Phrase | Occasion |
|---|---|
| ์ถ ๊ฒฐํผ (chuk gyeolhon) | Wedding |
| ์ถ ํํผ (chuk hwahon) | Wedding (used from the bride's side) |
| ๋ถ์ (buui) | Funeral |
| ๊ทผ์กฐ (geunjo) | Funeral (deep condolence) |
| ์ถ ์์ (chuk saengsin) | An elder's birthday, such as a 60th |
| ์ถ ๊ฐ์ (chuk gaeeop) | Opening of a shop or business |
๊ฐ์์ค๋ฌ์ด ์์์ ๋ง์์ด ๋๋ฌด ์ํ๋๋ค. ๋ถ๋ ํ๋ด์๊ธฐ ๋ฐ๋๋๋ค.
gapjakseureoun sosige maeumi neomu apeumnida. budi himnaesigi baramnida.
My heart aches at this sudden news. Please find strength.
๐ก Tip: Gift money is usually an odd-numbered amount (30,000, 50,000, 70,000, or 100,000 won). Even numbers are avoided because they can be 'divided,' though 100,000 won is a common exception.
๐ก Tip: If you can't attend in person, it's not rude to send money by bank transfer and follow up with a separate message. Just be sure to respond to a death notice as promptly as you can.