분야
docx2-1. Tendency to use FSCs.
2-2. Alternatives.
3. Conclusion
Approximately 240 thousand people die in Korea every year, meaning 700 people die every day. Throughout the human history, there have been very passionate discussions about afterlife, heaven and hell, and death. Whether or not people believe in afterlife, funeral is a symbolic ceremony that shows official termination of the social and biological life of the deceased. Funeral is the most intimate ceremony that reflects traditional culture. Because funeral is a process that everyone would eventually go through, we can find various forms of funerals according to different cultures. There is a well-known saying that we are all equal in front of the death; but can we really argue that this is true? Nowadays, considerably a lot of people tend to think that death is unequal in that we are judged by how much we can pay for.
Funeral is a very important life course in Korean culture which goes on for several days. When someone passes away, the wake is typically held in a funeral parlor at a hospital; this is a very unique point about Korean funeral culture. In 1994, the percentage of hospital funeral accounted for only 22% and it rose up to 68% in 2005. In May 1998, according to the nation-wide survey, there were 354 hospital funeral halls and 8 professional funeral halls. In late 2003, there were 502 hospital funeral halls among 632 funeral halls. According to the statistics, the city with the highest percentage of use in hospital funeral hall was Seoul, 97.1%, the lowest; Gwangju with 50.0% in 2003.
