Following Tradition or Faith

In Korea, there is a custom of having ancestral rites every year . My mother should clean up house to invite all other family members of my father’s side. She has to prepare lots of foods for whole family 3 times a year for about 3 decades since her marriage and still now. At least for my grandparents, my father who is the first son of my whole big family has taken it seriously. And at least once a year my family have used to go to have the rites for grandparents and manage the condition of graves of them in rural area near my city. The idea of respecting and showing devotion to parents and ancestors called ‘Hyo(孝(xiào in Chinese): filial piety from Confucian philosophy)’ has been regarded as very important traditional custom, even as a public morality in Korean society, but I felt Korean people tend to believe how to treat ancestral rites or ritual well to dead parents can bring good luck to each living family members. I think it can be a good tradition, if it’s only about expressing respect and love for parents and ancestors after their leaving. And I also think this custom including polite attitude to elder generation has helped to made Korea as stable and beautiful society. But it seems like many of my parents’ generation have taken ancestral rites has supernatural power which can be blessings or curses and also which holds and deepen the value of family firmly at the same time. It’s kind of duty that can’t be rejected by anyone among family members if they take care of their parents and family. As a converted Asian Christian from Roman catholic, I don’t know my parents will react about my religious opinion because in the biblical law of Christianity, idol worship cannot be accepted, while they look like they want to hand down same tradition in my generation, too. But if they want to keep this ancestral rites, it will be difficult to avoid those religious or cultural crash. Besides, If I get married with another Christian woman in the future, it will be another conflict, too. In The Lottery (Jackson, 293 of Portable Literature), people say “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon”. This words impressed me as town people’s fixation to dogmatic tradition. It’s a superstitious mantra wishing their collective sin can give luck of great harvest to them in fall. So they regard this human sacrifice ritual as sports. But although one of them can be sacrificed in the future, they don’t argue logically if it’s really needed or even don’t know how the horrible tradition of picking up one person randomly and stoning to death has made and handed down. In Dead Men’s Path(Achebe, 174), a village priest says “Let the hawk perches and let the eagle perches.” to the new head master of school. It means let others believe what they want to believe, even