Marrying, Korean style

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Marrying, Korean style

Here’s this week’s tip on Korean language and customs:

Q:
In Western countries, the groom is not supposed to see his bride in her wedding gown before the ceremony. But in Korea, both grooms and brides who have Western-style ceremonies take pictures together in their finery before the wedding, right?

A:
In the old days, long before Koreans adopted Western wedding ceremonies, the groom and the bride never met at all before the wedding day.

The wedding rites were customarily held in the bride’s home. Even on their wedding day, before, during and after the wedding ceremony, personal contact between the couple was discouraged until they retired for the night.

Those customs have gradually disappeared as Korea modernized, dating habits changed and young couples began to think that Western-style ceremonies were both more glamorous and easier to plan.

But Koreans tended to latch on to only the superficial ― and sometimes gaudy and commercial ― aspects of the Western tradition, including a photo session at a fancy studio, wedding dress and tuxedo or morning coat rentals and wedding halls that look like gingerbread houses or faux Italian palaces. For many people these days, a Korean-style ceremony is just one option ― a photo opportunity ― in a wedding package deal.
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