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At Indian weddings, guests are welcomed with folded hands, warmth and royal treats without any strings attached. At our place, whether to give an envelope or not depends on the guest’s own wish and the dining table is always open for everyone. But when an Indian woman came to South Korea to attend her colleague’s wedding, the customs there shocked her. While sharing a video on social media, this woman narrated her experience of Korean wedding hall, which has left internet users stunned. According to the woman, as soon as she stepped into the wedding venue, the first thing that appeared was a reception desk, where the guests were not allowed to go directly to the banquet hall, but had to first complete a prescribed formality to go inside and have dinner.
The woman showed in detail in her video that as soon as a guest reaches the main entrance of the wedding hall, there are separate reception counters for both the bride and groom’s side. Here the guests have to put congratulatory money in an envelope and write their name and relationship clearly on that envelope. As soon as the family member sitting at the counter accepts the envelope and registers the name in the register, they in turn hand over a small plastic or paper token to the guest, which is called ‘Meal Coupon’ there. Without this token, entry into the dining area of the wedding hall is completely prohibited. The woman said that being brought up in the Indian tradition of ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’, for her this scene felt exactly like paying an advance bill in a restaurant and taking a token, due to which she was shocked for a few moments.
After this video went viral, many people considered it to be a rude and formalistic behavior, but experts who know Korean culture and traditions have explained the social and economic logic behind it. This age-old tradition of giving cash gifts at weddings in South Korea ‘Chuk-ui-geum’ It is said. In Korean society, marriage is viewed as a collective social responsibility. There the expenses of wedding hall, live music and buffet are very high.
This token system is mainly implemented for three reasons:
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Precise Catering Management: Weddings in wedding halls in Korea take place in fixed slots (usually 1 to 2 hours). The meal coupon system lets the catering team know exactly how many people ate the meal, thus completely preventing food wastage.
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Sharing in heavy wedding expenses: Cash Shagun provides direct financial assistance to the newly married couple to start a new life and pay the rent for an expensive wedding venue.
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Transparency and Records: A written record of which relative or friend is gifting what amount is kept so that when a wedding takes place in that guest’s family, the host also returns the same amount to maintain social balance.
As soon as this video surfaced, an interesting debate has erupted on social media platforms. While many Indian users quipped that “If such a system is implemented in our country, half of the relatives will return angry without eating and there will be trouble in the marriage”, while many others called it a very practical and modern thinking. Some users said that this coupon system makes financial sense considering the huge wastage and unnecessary crowding in catering during weddings in India. However, most people believe that Korean weddings are very practical and formal, but the intimacy, noise and open-hearted hospitality seen in Indian weddings cannot be compared to any other corner of the world.