Chesa ( box 제사 , desa ) - a ceremony held in most Korean families professing Buddhism , Catholicism , as well as non-religious ; Protestants usually refrain from holding it [1] . The main purpose of the chesa is to honor the memory of the ancestors .
Chesa (ceremony)
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| Korea | |||||||
| Hangul : | 제사 | ||||||
| Hancha : | 祭祀 | ||||||
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From the beginning of the 18th century until 1939, the church forbade Catholics to conduct rituals of worshiping their ancestors; the ban was imposed by Clement XI after theological disputes . Pope Pius XII lifted the ban, but many Koreans in the United States , especially Protestants, do not practice Chesu [1] [2] [3] .
Content
Varieties
A variety of ceremonies are united under the term “chesa”: kijesa ( cor. 기제사 ? , 忌 祭祀? , An annual memorial ceremony on the day of the death of ancestors up to the fifth generation), chare ( cor. 차례 ? , 茶, ? , Ceremonies on New Year's Day and chusoka ), sonmyo ( cor. 성묘 ? , 省墓? , ceremonies that are held before the graves of their ancestors before Chusok and New Year), mesa ( cor. 묘사 ? , 墓 祀? , rituals performed on the graves in the tenth lunar month).
All ceremonies of this kind can be divided into three varieties [4] :
- chare ( cor. 차례 ? , 茶 禮? ) - ceremonies with a tea ceremony , held 4 times a year for major holidays;
- kija ( cor. 기제 ? , 忌 祭? , also kijesa) - home ceremonies on the night before the anniversary of the death of the ancestor
- sidge ( cor. 시제 ? , 時 祭? ; also sasije) - seasonal rituals held in honor of distant ancestors within 5 generations for the tenth lunar month.
Process
According to tradition, the family should be conducted by the family of the eldest son of the deceased, or the family of the eldest grandson (the eldest son of the eldest son, regardless of the actual ratio of the ages of the grandchildren). In modern families, any descendant can perform the ritual, including a daughter or youngest son. Wine is prepared for the chesha, taro soup, beef , fish , three colorful vegetables , various fruits , ttok and other sweets, especially those loved by the deceased during their lifetime [2] . ( cor. 신위 ? , 神位? ), A memorial plaque symbolizing the presence of the spirit, is placed in the center of the table [5] .
After midnight or in the evening before the death anniversary, the descendants set up a screen , a “chesasan” table, on which dishes are laid out in a certain order in small bowls. On the western side of the table should be rice, meat and white fruit; in the east - soups, fish and red fruits. The range of dishes closest to the screen includes rice and soups, followed by vegetables; meat and fish are placed in the middle, and the fruit row closest to those present is [6] [7] . Individual offerings to male ancestors are placed on the western side, and women on the eastern side. At the edges of the table set on a candle, and put a censer in the center.
A typical ceremony includes the following elements [6]
- kansin ( cor. 강신 ? , 降 神? ) - invocations of the spirits of ancestors;
- Chokhon ( cor. 초헌 ? , 初 獻? , "the first offering") - an offering of rice alcohol from an older descendant and his wife, after which they make traditional obeisances;
- ahon ( cor. 아헌 ? , 亞 獻? , "second offering") - a similar offering from the second oldest women descendants and husbands, who are deceased daughters or granddaughters;
- jongkhon ( cor. 종헌 ? , 終 獻? , "last offering") - a similar offering from the third generation of descendants;
- saxi ( cor. 삽시 ? , 揷 匙? , "sticking a spoon") - the oldest male descendant sticks a spoon in the center of a bowl of rice;
- yusik ( cor. 유식 ? , 侑 食? ) - the ceremony participants go out the door of the room with chesasan to allow the ancestors to eat (this phase is called “hapmun”, cor. 합문 ? , 闔 門? ). Then the senior descendant coughs three times and everyone returns to the room (“Kemun” cor. 계문 ? , 啟 門? );
- Honda ( cor. 헌다 ? , 献茶? , "tea offering") - for ancestors make a drink of fried rice;
- cholsan ( cor. 철상 ? , 撤 床? , "cleaning the table") - those present bow twice, after which the spirits leave the table for another year. The offerings are removed from the table, and the prayer previously written on paper is burned;
- imbok ( cor. 음복 ? , 飮 福? ) - those present share offerings among themselves and eat them; it is believed that with the use of ceremonial food, grace descends on the family.
Food from the altar can be given to neighbors and friends, performing the Buddhist ritual Sisik , a form of punya ; along with the reading of sutras, a sisik should help the spirit of the deceased to get into sukhavati [2] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Park, Chang-Won. Cultural Blending in Korean Death Rites. - Continuum International Publishing Group, June 10, 2010. - P. 12–13. - ISBN 978-1-4411-1749-6 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 Suh, Sharon A. (2004), Being Buddhist in a Christian World: Gender and Community in a Korean American Temple , University of Washington Press, p. 49, ISBN 0-295-98378-7
- ↑ Kwon, Okyun. Buddhist and protestant Korean immigrants: religious beliefs and socioeconomic aspects of life. - LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2003. - P. 137–138. - ISBN 978-1-931202-65-7 .
- ↑ Bae, Choon Sup. The Challenge of Ancestor Worship in Korea (Neopr.) . - University of Pretoria, 2007. - August.
- ↑ How to Hold Jesa Neopr (September 19, 2010). Date of treatment February 24, 2012.
- ↑ 1 2 Courtney, Charles. East wind: Taoist and cosmological implications of Christian theology. - University Press of America, 1997. - ISBN 978-0-7618-0861-9 .
- ↑ Mnemonics Archived on August 3, 2012. for laying out it looks like 飯 西 羹 東 ， 紅 東 白 西 ， 魚 東 肉 西 ， 頭 東 尾 西。 (반서 갱동 ， 홍동 백서 ， 어동 육서 ， 두동 미서).