Superstitions in Korea
Even though individuality is what I always believe in , there is no denial that we have always been and will be associated with our ancestors and history where we were born . We all have futures. We all have pasts. We all have stories and we give up our backs and allow religious myths to apply the rear naked choke to our minds.Am sure by now you would have guessed our topic today . You got it absolutely right, today I will talk about superstitions , and since this post is about Korea , that is what I will cover specifically , but since am from India , will start sharing my views and similar myths.I would love to hear what myths you have in your countries in the comment section below . Before i begin , lemme tell you , I am a complete disbeliever of superstitions, I belong to India , which has a lot of superstitions too but I guess with the modernization of society, people have started becoming more practical .
Here are a few that Koreans believe:
1. The number 4 is related to death
When I came across this one , It was more than just haunting to me, for I unfortunately stayed on the 4th floor of my apartment. Koreans take it so seriously that you will be surprised to know that there is no 4th floor in hospitals .So there is 1st , 2nd , 3rd and then 5th. Even the lifts in apartments will have the number 4 replaced by the English letter “F”. That’s scary but, It does remind me of whats more like unlucky number in my country, the number 13.
2.Writing someone’s name in red will make that person die
Now that’s scary. Just write your enemy’s name in red and he might collapse and die. I know that in many countries people just don’t prefer writing in red because they also associate it with color of terrorism or like a blood letter or something. Surprisingly, The red is the most holy color in my religion in India and you would always use the color red in any positive that you plan to do. In fact most of the teachers in Indian school will always check your copies in red .
3.Eating 미역국(seaweed soup) on an exam day will make you fail the text
The history of this myth comes from the fact that this special seaweed is more slippery than a banana peel. And that will make you slip in the exam. A similar myth to that in India is that one should never drink water before he leaves his house for any good thing. That comes from the fact the the water will spill over on your good deeds and wash them away. Indians also believe that sugar and curd should be eaten before you start or plan a positive thing in your life which comes from the fact that it will change the bitter curd into sugary deeds and moments .
4.Dreams of pigs mean that you will have good luck with money
Similar to that is in India, when you dream of snakes . So people would run and buy lottery tickets or invest in something.
5.You need to have the right “궁합”
A marital harmony as predicted by a fortuneteller to be happily married. This one is just so so common to India. In fact fortune telling is considered a quite popular business and you might be more rich than a fixed salary average person. The sad part is that both in Korea and India, many marriages and relations break because of incompatibility mentioned by the fortuneteller and people get too serious about the match.
6. Koreans avoid gifting each other sharp objects like knives etc in a happy event
Opposite to that in India, People have a special day where they go out and buy all these utensils and gifting someone a complete knife set of all kinds is kinda cool. However similar to that Indians believe that you should never use scissors in air if you don’t have anything to cut. It is believed using scissors freely in the air without an object in between will actually cut the moments of happiness.
I believe fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fantasies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most terrible thing. The child’s mind accepts and believes them, and only through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in later years relieved of them. I hope you all will agree with me and would just enjoy the information above mentioned for fun. Thank you for investing your time in reading this and stay connected .