A press conference was held at the Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul to announce the ‘Standard Draft for Rites’ hosted by the Sungkyunkwan Ritual Establishment Committee. The key to the simplification plan presented by Sungkyunkwan on this day is to no longer go through the trouble of making pancakes and that a maximum of 9 types of food is sufficient. According to the standard, the basic foods for the simplified Chuseok ceremonial table are six items: songpyeon (songpyeon), namul (namul), grilled (jeok·炙), kimchi, fruit, and alcohol. If you raise it a little more, you can place meat, fish, and rice cake. The photo shows the standard table presented by Sungkyunkwan. 2022.9.5 ⓒ News1 Reporter Song Won-young
(Seoul = News 1) Reporter Lee Bi-seul = Ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, there is a continuing movement to improve the burden of housework and the practice of fixing gender roles. There are suggestions that a gender-equal holiday culture should be spread through division of housework, changes in titles, and reinterpretation of ancestral rite culture.
According to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on the 15th, there is continued social interest in easing gender-based role classification and traditional ceremonial culture standards ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.
Spreading a gender-equal holiday culture is a task that the government and local governments have been pursuing every year ahead of Lunar New Year and Chuseok. The key message is that family members share housework and care regardless of gender and age and refrain from asking personal questions about appearance, marriage, or childbirth.
Minister of Gender Equality and Family Won Min-kyung recently said through her social network service (SNS), “This Lunar New Year, how about we all recognize each other’s hard work?” and “As it is a precious time to share warm hearts with family and neighbors, I hope it will be a gender-equal holiday where we are considerate and share in housework and care.”
Minister Won went on to explain, “Child care services, family counseling, and violence victim counseling support for those who need help during the holidays will operate as normal.”
Efforts to spread a culture of gender equality at the local government level are also continuing. Ahead of this year’s Lunar New Year, the Gender Equality Activity Center in Jungnang-gu, Seoul presented the following practical rules: △sharing holiday preparations and housework △not asking questions about appearance, marriage, or childbirth △using respectful words and titles △expressing discomfort and responding to it.
Ahead of this Lunar New Year, there were also suggestions that a reinterpretation of ancestral rite culture was needed. Ahead of this year’s Lunar New Year, the Korean Arts Center of the Korea Confucian Culture Promotion Agency proposed a ‘modern customized Lunar New Year’s ceremony etiquette’ that preserves the spirit of tradition but reflects recent lifestyles.
According to the center, the original charye is a simple ritual that involves offering rice cake soup, songpyeon, and three to four kinds of fruit. The recommendation explained that 4 to 6 foods, mainly rice cake soup, are sufficient.
In particular, it was suggested that pancakes, which require a lot of work, can be excluded or reduced from the ancestral rite table, noting that they are not recommended foods for ancestral rites according to rites.
Serving foods that ancestors liked when they were alive, or fruits and side dishes that are commonly eaten in modern times, was also interpreted as a modern sincerity to honor ancestors, rather than an act that violates etiquette.
He pointed out that expressions known as fruit arrangement principles, such as Hongdongbaekseo and Jojoyishi, are not strictly regulated in traditional etiquette books. However, national rituals such as Jongmyo Jerye and ancestral rites for historic head families were classified as needing to be preserved in their original form, reflecting the nature of cultural heritage.
Since discussions on abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family began in earnest around the 20th presidential election in 2022, the holiday gender equality campaigns of central ministries and some local governments tend to be reduced compared to the past. Some point out that improving awareness surrounding holiday culture should not be limited to one-time campaigns but should lead to daily practice.
Ahead of the 2020 Lunar New Year, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the predecessor of the Ministry of Gender Equality, conducted a campaign called ‘Let’s create an equal and happy Lunar New Year holiday for all families together.’ The main purpose is to call the spouse’s parents as father and mother instead of father-in-law and mother-in-law, and to call the spouse’s siblings with ‘ssi’ in their names instead of doryeonnim or agashi.
The ‘Seoul City Gender Equality Living Dictionary’, published in 2019 by the Seoul Women and Family Foundation, proposed changing the expressions to ‘spouse’ instead of family member, insider, and outsider, and ‘father’s home’ and mother’s home’ instead of paternal home and maternal home.
b3@news1.kr
date: 2026-02-14 23:35:00