The Korean life cycle event I will be presenting is Chaesa (the anniversary of death celebration). My informant is a very close high school friend named Jay Nam, a 1.5 generation Korean American who is thirty years of age. He works for his father as a manager for several food court restaurant chains in the Los Angeles county area.

The focus of the discussion is Jay Nam’s grandfather on his father’s side. Jay’s father’s name is Sang Ho Nam. He is sixty three years of age. Jay was not sure of his grandfather’s name, so we decided to refer to him as Grandfather Nam. Grandfather Nam was not very old at the time of his death. He was an architect and his life was taken from him during a freak accident while on location during a construction project in Korea. While on location, a wall of a building collapsed on him, killing him instantaneously.
This accident caused a serious of legal actions where the court tried to place Jay’s father in jail due to financial obligations left upon him after Grandfather Nam’s passing which Jay’s father could not fulfill. For this reason he immigrated to the United States.

Jay’s father immigrated to the United States in the year of nineteen seventy four. The first time Jay’s family celebrated the anniversary of his grandfather’s death was when Jay was five years old. According to Jay, they began celebrating his death either because Jay’s family moved into a house (a larger living area) or because the entire family on his father’s side immigrated to the United States.

The celebration from its first year was always done with the entire extended family (from the father’s side), never exclusively celebrated by Jay’s immediate family. Members of Jay’s mother’s family never took part in the celebration. Jay’s family comprised of him, his older sister, his mother, and his father. At the time of the first Chaesa, his younger sister was not yet born. The father’s older sister and her family were present, along with his younger sister and her family, and his two younger brothers and their families. There were “a lot” of people present. They held this ritual for approximately 6 consecutive years. The last celebration was held before Jay entered high school. The reason the celebrations ended was due to family conflicts. It was stated by Jay that his family stopped participating, but there is a good chance that the other family’s continued with the celebrations.

The Chaesa was always held on the day of the grandfather’s death. The format of the Chaesa was dinner with the adults eating in the dining room area and the children eating in a separate part of the house. Strictly Korean food was served. It was not catered, but homemade.

After dinner, the food and plates were put away, and thereafter a picture of the grandfather was placed on the dining room table along with candles. The participants all stood on one side of the room, facing the picture. It was always the same picture of a black and white head shot of Grandfather Nam at an early age used year after year, placed on top of a the regular, waist high dining table that the adults ate from earlier in the evening. There was never food, ttuk, or fruits placed around the picture. Only candles were used in the actual ceremony. The lights were dimmed and the entire extended family sung hymns from the Korean hymnal (Changsongga). Three hymns were sung, all of which were sung from the beginning verse to the last. These songs that were chosen as part of the ceremony were Grandfather Nam’s favorites. Following the singing, Jay’s father lead in a prayer. The whole ceremony lasted for about fifteen minutes. Afterwards, some family members would stay a while longer while the others left for their homes.

Most memorable to Jay was that year after year, the same picture was used. It was a serious looking picture of Grandfather Nam from his early years. As a youth, Jay really never knew what was “going on”. He would stand next to his parents as he was told and he tried to be as discreet as he could be. The reason for Jay being ill-informed about the actual purpose of the ceremony was due in part to Jay’s father not completely defining to Jay the ceremony’s purpose. They (his mother and father) simply explained that it was Grandfather Nam’s funeral anniversary. Jay can also remember that during the first couple Chaesas his father would cry. He wasn’t sure why his father would do this, whether it was because he was happy about all of his family members being reunited, whether the ceremony invoked memories of his father, if it were because they were finally formally remembering the day of Grandfather Nam’s passing, or if it was because the celebration invoked thoughts from Jay’s father of him realizing the American dream were all finally coming true. It should also be noted that the singing was “good”. It was described by Jay as being loud and deep.

This interview was tape recorded and a transcription has not yet been made.