The entire family is gathered: Their mood is happy, but their deportment is quiet dignified. As they await their guests-of-honor, their attention is focused on the colorful and heavily laden table that dominates the room. For many, it is the first time for as long as ten years that they have been together, but this is not a time for chatter. They have come together in a demonstration of the affection and esteem in which they hold their senior family members and, through this gracious act of respect, to inherit the virtue, wisdom, and experience of their elders, and affirm their extended family ties.
It has long been customary in Korea to hold a grand banquet on the occasion of a person's seventieth birthday. Koreans refer to the age of seventy, as well as to the banquet itself, as kohui (rare), although the term huisu is also used. In the past, such a banquet was given at the time of one's hawangap, or sixtieth birthday: Since people's average life span was shorter than now, it was considered a great blessing for a person to live to the age of seventy.
The origins of kohui are not known with certainty. The word itself originated in the Qu Jiang Shi (Poems of the Qu River) by the Tang poet Du Fu (712-770), which contains the line "From ancient times, rare is the man who sees three score and ten." And it was a longstanding custom in Korea for the government to honor the elderly by recognizing their services and making them comfortable in their old age. It is recorded, for example, that in the fifth year of the Shilla kingdom (A.D 28) King Yuri provided sustenance to the elderly sick who were unable to support themselves, as well as to widowers, widows, orphans, and the childless. We can presume from this that the Korean custom of honoring and caring for the elderly was handed down from antiquity, and that sometime after the ninth century it developed into the kohui.
The kohui is believed to have been established as a folk custom during the Choson kingdom (1392-1910). Such customs for honoring the elderly generally originated in government policies on public morals, which were intended to purify society and to spread virtuous government. Midway through the Koryo kingdom (918-1392), some scholars who, due to their age, had retired from their government posts and formed a circle called the kirohoe in which they could enjoy their twilight years, but this group was never institutionalized. In the third year of his reign, upon his sixtieth birthday, King T'aejo (1394) of the Choson kingdom established the kiroso out respect for senior statesmen (of at least the second court rank) who had passed their seventieth birthday. The king proceeded to enroll them, along with himself, in the kiroso and confer upon them land, a salt pond, and slaves. A special feature of the kiroso was the kiroyon, a banquet at which the king entertained the senior statesmen.
Upon his accession to the throne, T'aejo's son, T'aejong, institutionalized this banquet. At first, officials in both the civil and the military services were enrolled, but beginning midway through the dynasty only the former were granted eligibility. Since king and statesmen alike participated in the kiroso, this institution exercised great influence through its discussions of the important affairs of state and in its function as a consultative body for the king.
Because membership in the kiroso was limited to those aged seventy or older, the kiroyon was
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