This paper, based on a four year comparative ethnographic study of late life rituals among Korean and Korean-Americans, discusses the ways in which late life rituals change to meet the differing and changing environments. Using the Korean 60th birthday ritual, hwangap, observed in Korea and the United States, the social context of aging in Seoul and within the ethnic Korean American community in San Francisco is discussed.As Korea is undergoing vast social changes, the traditional ritual is compared to the transformed manifestations of the ritual. Migration to the United States provides another transformation of the traditional ritual.