Why do Korean families prepare food for deceased ancestors? Discover Jesa in K-Dramas, its Confucian roots, Catholic history, and changing family traditions.
Jesa in Korea: Why Do Families Prepare Food for Their Ancestors?
If you watch K-Dramas, you may have noticed scenes where family members gather around a large table filled with carefully prepared food. There might be rice, soup, fish, meat, and fruit, all arranged in a particular order. One by one, family members bow respectfully before the table.
For international viewers, this might raise an interesting question: Why do Koreans prepare such elaborate meals for family members who have already passed away?
This traditional ceremony is called Jesa (제사), a Korean ancestral memorial ritual performed to honor and remember deceased family members.
Its roots are closely connected to Confucianism, which strongly influenced Korean society during the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897). In traditional Confucian thought, respecting one’s parents and ancestors was an important expression of filial piety, or devotion to one’s family.
Historically, some families believed that ancestral spirits could return during the ceremony and symbolically partake in the food prepared for them.
However, not every Korean family today shares this belief. For many, Jesa is primarily a time to remember deceased parents or grandparents and maintain connections between generations.
There are two related traditions worth knowing:
Gijesa (기제사): An ancestral memorial ceremony traditionally held on the anniversary of a family member’s death.
Charye (차례): A simpler ancestral rite traditionally performed during major Korean holidays, especially Seollal (Lunar New Year) and Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving).
Other cultures also have traditions of remembering the dead. In many Western countries, families visit cemeteries, attend memorial services, or participate in religious ceremonies.
What makes Korean ancestral rites distinctive is the way food preparation, family gatherings, and formal gestures of respect have traditionally come together in a shared ceremony.
Yet the meaning of Jesa has not always been the same, especially when religion enters the story.
Jesa and Korean Catholicism: When Honoring Ancestors Became a Religious Conflict
My family is Catholic, but we still hold Jesa once a year on the anniversary of my grandfather’s death.
For us, it is a natural way to remember someone we loved. Interestingly, though, the relationship between Catholicism and ancestral rites in Korea was once a matter of life and death.
Korean Catholic history has a particularly unusual beginning.
In the late 18th century, Korean scholars began studying Catholic teachings through books brought from China. Rather than initially being established by foreign missionaries working inside Korea, the Korean Catholic community developed largely through the efforts of Korean believers themselves.
The fact that Korean believers voluntarily formed a faith community without the leadership of priests is a distinctive and remarkable feature of Korean Catholic history, setting it apart from the early development of Catholicism in many other parts of the world.
In 1784, Yi Seung-hun, who had been baptized in Beijing, returned to Korea and helped establish an early Catholic community.
This lay-led beginning became one of the defining characteristics of Korean Catholic history.
However, a serious conflict soon emerged.
At that time, the Catholic Church prohibited ancestral rites because they were considered incompatible with Christian teachings against idolatry.
In Confucian Joseon society, refusing to perform these ceremonies was not simply a personal religious choice. It could be interpreted as rejecting filial piety and challenging the social order.
In 1791, two Korean Catholics, Yun Ji-chung and Kwon Sang-yeon, were executed following an incident involving the rejection of traditional ancestral rites. Their deaths became an important event in the early persecution of Korean Catholics.
Over the following decades, repeated persecutions took the lives of many believers. These conflicts involved religious differences as well as wider political and social tensions.
A major change came in 1939, when the Vatican adopted a more accommodating position toward certain ancestral ceremonies, recognizing that gestures of respect toward deceased family members could have cultural rather than religious meanings.
The Korean Catholic Church subsequently permitted specific ancestral memorial practices, including bowing before a deceased person’s photograph or grave and offering food, provided the ceremonies remained consistent with Catholic teachings.
This helps explain why Catholic families like mine can observe Jesa today.
The ritual may look similar to traditional Confucian ceremonies, but its religious interpretation can be quite different.
What was once considered a serious conflict between faith and family tradition can now be understood as an expression of remembrance and respect.
Jesa in K-Dramas vs. Real Life: Why Korean Traditions Are Changing
In K-Dramas, ancestral ceremonies sometimes provide the setting for family gatherings, food preparation, and conversations between relatives.
These scenes can reveal more than respect for ancestors. They can also reflect the expectations, responsibilities, and tensions within Korean families.
In my grandfather’s generation, our family continued the tradition of holding memorial ceremonies for ancestors across three generations, a practice that remained part of our family life into the 1980s.
But preparing for Jesa was never a small task.
Traditional ancestral tables could require numerous dishes, each prepared according to family customs. Shopping, cooking, arranging the food, and cleaning up afterward demanded considerable time and effort.
Historically, much of this responsibility fell on women, especially daughters-in-law.
As more married women entered the workforce, balancing full-time employment with elaborate family ceremonies became increasingly difficult.
This created tension between traditional expectations and modern lifestyles.
Today, Korean families approach Jesa in different ways.
Some combine several ancestral memorial ceremonies into one annual gathering. Others reduce the number of dishes or simplify the rituals. Some families have stopped performing Jesa altogether, choosing different ways to remember their loved ones.
My own family offers an example of how these traditions can change.
During Seollal and Chuseok, instead of preparing a traditional Charye table at home, my parents visit my grandfather’s grave at Daejeon National Cemetery together with my grandmother.
They pay their respects there, replacing the traditional holiday ceremony with a visit to his resting place.
For our family, remembering my grandfather does not necessarily require an elaborate table of food.
The important thing is taking time to honor him.
This reflects a broader change in how Korean families think about ancestral traditions.
In the past, following established rituals was often considered an important family obligation. Today, families may place greater emphasis on choosing a meaningful way to remember those who have passed away.
Of course, this does not mean Jesa has disappeared from Korean society. Some families continue to observe traditional ceremonies carefully, while others adapt them to their circumstances.
So, the elaborate ancestral tables you see in K-Dramas do not necessarily represent every Korean household today.
They reflect an important part of Korean cultural history, but the ways families practice these traditions continue to evolve.
Closing: Jesa Is About More Than Food
Jesa is much more than a Korean tradition of placing food before deceased ancestors.
It reflects centuries of Confucian values, family relationships, religious conflicts, and changing social expectations.
For earlier generations, maintaining ancestral ceremonies was often regarded as a responsibility passed down through the family. For many Koreans today, the focus is increasingly on finding a personal and meaningful way to remember loved ones.
Whether a family prepares a traditional memorial table, holds a simpler ceremony, or visits a grave, the underlying desire to honor those who came before them can remain the same.
The next time you see a family gathered around an ancestral table in a K-Drama, look beyond the carefully arranged food and formal bows.
You may discover a story about family bonds, historical beliefs, and the ways Korean traditions continue to change.
After all, the heart of Jesa is not simply what families place on the table, but whom they choose to remember.
