Julie Kim

Korean Funeral

Contemporary Koreans are very practical, even in death. Mortuaries are set up within hospitals to hold services for the deceased. An LCD display outside each room shows whose funeral it is. In this case, a distant relative of mine on my mother's side.
  
  
The Christian service was attended mostly by members of the deceased's church.
     
  
After a few prayers the coffin was loaded into the hold of a coach that took all of us to the burial ground.
   
  
     
  
Korea is a mountainous country. As we approached the gates of the cemetery, what I thought were terraces of rice fields were actually terraces of graves that stretched on as far as the eye could see. In private cemeteries, higher graves are indicative of a higher social status.