집들이[入宅] 풍속의 전통과 변화

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The house warming custom of rural society, in which tradition is highly valued, played the role of construction ceremony to complete the house in terms of social and cultural aspects, and of commencing ceremony to start the living in the house. The house warming custom incorporated magico-religious performances. The date was selected for the residents to enter the new house, and they moved in with their furniture and belongings. When they worshipped the gods of their houses, they offered a sacrifice to the gods and prayed for their life to be peaceful. In addition, when they entered the house, they performed ceremonies to purify the house from the evils.
Rural society was basically a form of regional community. Therefore, when they entered the new house, not only their relatives but also the neighbors helped them move. When the moving was finished, everybody involved in the moving gathered to have a good time together. The host family offered a variety of foods to treat the relatives and neighbors, which served as an announcement that they had moved into their new house. The guests, as members of blood-relationship and regional community, brought gifts as a token of their prayers for the prosperity of the house. This kind of after-party for the house warming custom was a humble event rather than a lavish party.
However, the spirit of the regional community is getting weaker and weaker in the modern urban society, and the social importance of the work place community is getting bigger and bigger. Thus, the house warming party has become to be held separately after the moving. In urban society, the house warming custom is not a construction ceremony to complete the house any more, nor a moving-in ceremony. It is conducted only as a party to celebrate the new house. The moving is privately conducted by the moving companies but the house warming party is publicly promoted.
Nowadays, the house warming party in urban society is performed many times according to the host family's social relationship with many groups divided into various kinds of people. The invited guests are the members of blood-tie community and their modern social group. Foods are generally ordered from restaurants rather than prepared by the host family. Besides the superficial purpose of giving notice for the new house and looking around it, the house warming party serves as a mechanism that confirms various social networks and reinforce those social networks. As the urbanization of the country side is progressing, the way the country people conduct their house warming custom is being changed from its traditional pattern and meaning toward that of the customs of city people.