Wrap · Weddings & rites
Bride's gift wrap
Bojagi wrapping for the bride's family's wedding gifts (bedding, tableware, clothing) sent to the groom's parents.
- For
- Wedding: bride's family sends gifts (bedding, bowls, clothing) to the groom's family
- Wraps
- Hanji yedan box or bedding
- Cloth
- laid as a diamond
- Closed with
- Geunbong seal band, Rubber-band fastening
- Level
- Moderate
Retail guides: bride's side uses blue-family bojagi, groom's side red-family ('신부집에서 보내는 예단보자기는 청색계열… 신랑집… 홍색계열'; also 호호당). Cash yedan goes in an envelope marked 예단 with 근봉 at the flap, then in a bojagi; the mother-in-law often re-wraps part of it to return in red-family cloth.
Size and colour chosen to fit the hanji box and bowl set (yedameun)
- 1Wrap each item separately, then pack them in the yedan box.
- 2Lay the double-layer bojagi as a diamond, with the colour that should show facing down.
- 3Set the box in the centre.
- 4Gather the near, far, left and right corners at the centre of the top.
- 5Bind the gathered neck at the top, middle and bottom (three cords or bands).
- 6Fold a 근봉 paper band to size and wrap it round the neck so 謹封 faces front; fix with tape.
History & tradition
Joseon custom of 예단 silk; current form 20th-21st century
예단 originally meant silk the bride offered her husband's family; she sewed it into clothes for her parents-in-law and sent them back wrapped. The custom shifted to bedding, tableware and later cash, and the gifts are still sent wrapped in bojagi, usually about a month before the wedding. Trousseau lists record dozens of bojagi sewn for a daughter's marriage.
Wedding shops still sell and wrap 예단보, with blue-family cloth for the bride's side and red for the groom's.
The blue-for-bride / red-for-groom colour rule comes from retailers, not historical sources.
Researched with medium confidence.