New Year’s Etiquette Baffles Korean

“Among other things, she had made a very excellent and rather large cake, which she expected to distribute in small slices to her callers.

A 2nd Debut Article from 2016

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Eastern Etiquette Met Western Etiquette, 

on New Year’s Day, Leaving One Gentleman Sick

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A Native’s Call Upon an American Lady

The native Koreans, who have become familiar with foreigners and their ways, take very readily to the custom of calling and eating on New Year’s day. and one American lady had a very peculiar experience with a native official in Seoul on New Year’s day. 

She was keeping open house and had made preparations for receiving her guests in the proper manner. Among other things, she had made a very excellent and rather large cake, which she expected to distribute in small slices to her callers. A party of native gentlemen arrived, and having given one of them a cup of tea, she placed this large cake before him, with an invitation to help himself. She then went with the others to another room and was gone some time.

When she returned she saw, to her horror, that her cake had all but disappeared. The native, according to his ideas of etiquette, had done his best not to leave any of the eatables set before him. The lady’s vexation was banished by a feeling of pity for the poor fellow, who was quite sick from overfeeding. 

It is said that this call was his first and last that day. He declared to his his friends that foreigners “must be all stomach” If they could go from house to house and “eat that much every time.” — London Mail, 1897

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Old Korean Wedding Etiquette

Public Domain image of young Korean couple playing board game, circa 1910 -1920

Folks Make the Match and the Principals Do Not Meet Till Ceremony

The marriage customs of Korea are peculiar. Parents and friends arrange the match, in accordance with their own interests, and without consulting the parties most concerned. The wedding is accompanied with few formalities, Early in the morning, the best man arrives to tie the bridegroom's pigtail in a knot on the top of his head, and this not only remains forever as an outward and visible sign of his condition, but entitles him to he treated as a man and to enter public life. 

He may be a child of 10, but he may no longer play with his friends and he must choose his associates among old men —octogenarians even. He has all civil rights and is expected to behave accordingly. If he is unable to afford the luxury of wife and children, he must continue to extreme old age wearing his pigtail down his back, renouncing all the advantages of citizenship and playing with kid’s and marbles. Any folly he may commit is excused on account of non-age, just as in the case of a naughty baby. 

The wedding consists simply of a procession, when bride and bridegroom are conducted by their respective relatives to a dais. There they are set face to face. Now for the first time they see each other. The mutual surprise is sometimes very disagreeable. But it is the height of bad taste to show any emotion. 

The young couple bow without a word being spoken, and a few minutes afterward the bride is conducted to her home, where she is cloistered forever. Social etiquette demands that the bridegroom shall return to the company of his bachelor friends for a few days which are passed in festivities that sometimes degenerate into orgies. 

A honeymoon is unknown, wedding trips unheard of. The young wife becomes a head servant to her mother-in-law and no visible change is introduced. — King City Rustler, 1907

 🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

American vs Korean Etiquette

“Among other things, she had made a very excellent and rather large cake, which she expected to distribute in small slices to her callers.”

Eastern Etiquette Met Western Etiquette, on New Year’s Day, Leaving One Gentleman Sick

******************** 

A Native’s Call Upon an American Lady

The native Koreans, who have become familiar with foreigners and their ways, take very readily to the custom of calling and eating on New Year’s day. and one American lady had a very peculiar experience with a native official in Seoul on New Year’s day. 

She was keeping open house and had made preparations for receiving her guests in the proper manner. Among other things, she had made a very excellent and rather large cake, which she expected to distribute in small slices to her callers. A party of native gentlemen arrived, and having given one of them a cup of tea, she placed this large cake before him, with an invitation to help himself. She then went with the others to another room and was gone some time.

When she returned she saw, to her horror, that her cake had all but disappeared. The native, according to his ideas of etiquette, had done his best not to leave any of the eatables set before him. The lady’s vexation was banished by a feeling of pity for the poor fellow, who was quite sick from overfeeding. 

It is said that this call was his first and last that day. He declared to his his friends that foreigners “must be all stomach” If they could go from house to house and “eat that much every time.” — London Mail, 1897

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia