Confucian association advocates simplified charye table for chuseok

On Chuseok married women often dread the extensive meal preparations for Charye. The Sungkyunkwan Confucian Association promotes a simplified version, emphasizing family harmony over an elaborate display of offerings on the ritual table.

Simplified Charye (the ritual of preparing a full meal for the ancestors) table only has about nine dishes [JOONGANG ILBO]

Today is Korea's national holiday Chuseok, or Korean thanksgiving. Some may have looked forward to the long holiday but for many married women, it's one of the most dreadful holiday season as they have to spend hours in the kitchen, helping their mother in-law to prepare for Charye (the ritual of preparing a full meal for the ancestors) not even for their own but their husbands’ ancestors.

Known as Charye, women usually prepare up to 30 dishes to go on the ritual table on the Chuseok day. This national holiday originated as a ritual in which the first crops of the season are dedicated to ancestors, but it gradually became more than just a harvest festival, especially for strictly Confucian families.

Sungkyunkwan Confucian Association, an organization that promotes the spirit and value of Confucianism, stresses that it’s not important to have many different dishes on the ritual table. In 2022, the association announced a “Simplified Charye” and illustrated an example of a Charye table with only nine dishes.

The association said, "placing just nine items, including alcohol and fruit, is sufficient for the Charye table." This statement caused quite a stir across the country, as it challenged the common belief that honoring ancestors properly required a greater variety and higher quality of food offerings.

According to the “Standard for simplified charye table” issued by the Sungkyunkwan Confucian Association, nine items are served on the table. [YONHAP]

What shocked Koreans more was that fried dishes like jeon (egg-coated deep-fried foods) are not really necessary on a Charye table. Jeon is known to be one of the most labor-intensive and stressful dish to prepare for women as they have to stand behind a hot stove for long hours.

However, Choi Young-gap, president of the association said that such dish involving oil “was not placed on a charye table in the past.”

According to the “Standard for simplified charye table” issued by the Sungkyunkwan Confucian Association, nine items are served on the table. They are: songpyeon (a moon-shaped Korean traditional rice cake) or tteokguk (rice cake soup), alcohol, grilled food, namul (seasoned greens), kimchi and four to five kinds of fruits.

Choi said what’s important is the “family harmony” on this holiday season, adding that what the ancestors want is not a fancy Charye table, but for “family members to gather and enjoy being around each other.”

"The wrong approach to holiday rituals causes conflict within families. If such conflicts persist, I don't believe there's even a need to hold Charye," he said.

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]