Wrap · Weddings & rites
Birth-date letter wrap
The blue-and-red cloth that wraps the groom's birth-date letter (사주단자), sent to the bride's family after betrothal.
- For
- Wedding: groom's family sends the 사주단자 (his birth year, month, day and hour)
- Wraps
- Folded saju letter in envelope and split stick
- Cloth
- laid as a diamond
- Closed with
- Double-heart knot (saju thread), Geunbong seal band
- Level
- Involved
Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (사주단자): wrapped in a 청홍 겹 cloth with blue outside and blue/red threads at the corners. Sticks reportedly keep the paper from being crushed in the bundle; bamboo in some regions, none in others.
- 1Fold the letter paper 5 or 7 times and write the birth data in the centre panel.
- 2Wrap it in plain white paper and slip it into an unsealed envelope marked 사주.
- 3Put a band written 근봉 on the envelope.
- 4Slide the envelope into a split 싸리 or sorghum stick, leaving the ends attached.
- 5Wind blue and red thread from top to bottom, then bottom to top, round both ends.
- 6Finish the thread with a 동심결.
- 7Lay the blue-red double cloth so it will close blue side out, and wrap the letter.
- 8Close with the blue and red ties attached at the corners.
History & tradition
Joseon wedding custom
After a match was agreed, the groom's family sent a folded sheet giving his year, month, day and hour of birth. It was wrapped in white paper, put in an unsealed envelope marked 근봉, clamped in a split sorghum or bush-clover stick bound with blue and red thread in a 동심결 knot, then wrapped in a blue-and-red lined cloth, blue outside. The carrier was ideally a lucky man with a first son. The bride kept the 사주 in her wardrobe for life.
Still sent in many weddings, often inside the 함 rather than separately.
The encyclopedia says blue outside; modern wedding shops wrap it in a red cloth placed in the 함. Why the stick is used is unknown.
Researched with medium confidence.