Abstract
This study investigated the thoughts of undergraduate students in Seoul about the birth rites and wedding ceremony and their foods. Among 524 students who were surveyed, 299 students answered that the meaning of the first birthday rites was for special memory, followed by the child's future and family's harmonies. 248 desired birth rites to remain unchanged and 150 desired extravagance and waste to be reduced. Regarding wedding ceremony, 328 answered that changes are necessary in wedding ceremony gifts. Next, process in wedding ceremony and bridegroom's gift box should be changed, Most of the students didn't know clearly the foods of the one hundredth birthday and the first birthday; nevertheless they considered the birth rites to be necessary. Regarding wedding ceremony, half of the students knew the process and half didn't. Two hundred students answered they knew ordinarily about the foods of wedding ceremony. There were no significant differences in hometown about foods of wedding ceremony. In parent's religions, there were no differences about gifts & foods offered by the bride. The Buddhist students knew well about the birth rites' foods and considered birth rites to be necessary. The correlation of parents' work and student's major and passage rites showed that professional parents knew well about birth rites' foods but religious believers didn't know well. Students majoring in natural science were not concerned with birth rites and thought that they were unnecessary and they didn't know about wedding ceremony process and foods. Knowledge about birth rites increased with increasing number of siblings. Large families were interested in birth rites and knew well about the wedding process, wedding ceremony foods and gift & foods offered by the bride.