Author Archives: park118

Giving shoes as gifts

Informant is a second generation Korean. She currently lives in Los Angeles and is in her early 30s.

Superstition as told by informant: There was one my mom told me when I was little about giving shoes as gifts and why it’s bad luck. You can’t give shoes to your girlfriend/boyfriend because if you do Koreans believe they will break up with you and run away.

After doing some more research I actually found out that some people will actually pay a small amount of money to not be given shoes even if they are due gifts, which I thought was hilarious because of Korea’s prominent fashion industry.

But now that I think of it I rarely hear about giving shoes as gifts even here in California. Maybe its because you might get the wrong size for the person and might burden them.

Names in Red

Informant is a second generation Korean. She currently lives in Los Angeles and is in her early 30s.

Superstition as told by informant: I remember my mom telling me not to sign my name in red ink. It signified death or something.

This is one that has come up twice during my collection and I think it’s one of the more popular ones in Korean households.

In many Asian countries the color red is usually associated with death in various ways. One of them is because simply red is the color of blood. Another association is when someone passes away their name is written in red on the funeral registry and on the funeral banners. It’s believed that this practice wards off evil spirits.

For more on this superstition see http://www.gwangjunewsgic.com/online/behind-the-myth-the-red-pen/

The boy, girl, and the crow

Informant is a second generation Korean. She currently lives in Los Angeles and is in her early 30s.

 

Folk tale as told by informant: There’s also one that I heard from my parents where some girl gets taken up to the sky in a well. And then the guy and girl who were not allowed to marry, but the ravens or crows felt bad for them and made a bridge so they can meet once a year. It was one of those stories that explain why this one type of black bird gets bald once a year. The girl was a heavenly princess and the guy was a normal guy on Earth.

I also remember hearing this story as a child. It was read to me by my parents and I have a huge collection of these little books back home.

Mr. Moon and Miss Sun

Informant is a second generation Korean. She currently lives in Los Angeles and is in her early 30s.

Folk tale as told by informant: The only one I remember is the one about the sun and the moon, something about a guy and a girl. The brother and sister that turned into the sun and the moon or something or other as they were trying to run away from a tiger that wanted to eat them. I don’t think my parents told us too many of these, if they did I don’t remember or didn’t care to listen.

I also remember reading this book as a child. After doing some research I have notice that this story has some common motifs seen in other tales like Little Red Riding Hood. And you can also apply Volk’s 31 functions to some parts of this tale. The young brother and sister are chased by a tiger that is disguised as their mother and they climb a rope that leads to the sky where they become the sun and the moon where they are safe away from the deceptive tiger.

 

Don’t clip your nails at night

Informant is a second generation Korean. She currently lives in Los Angeles and is in her early 30s.

Superstition as told by informant: I have an odd one… my mom would always tell me not to clips my nails at night… something about how it can be taken by an evil spirit or something. But you know what, none of my other Korean friends had heard such a thing before…so I’m not sure if it’s a Korean lore/superstition or just my mom’s own self-imposed superstition. I think the nail clippings are supposedly taken by a murdered young woman (the white ghost/witch) who has become an evil spirit. She’s called chungnyun guishin… literally a young woman ghost. And she wears all white and has long black hair.

This one in particular really had an impact on me. I remember growing up being told something similar to this, but I must’ve forgotten it because when I heard this again from my informant it haunted me. So there’s no way I’m cutting my nails at night again.