Text: “I’m Korean, and there is a tradition that we do on our first birthday called Doljabi. Basically, we are placed in front of various items that each represent something. For example, at my Doljabi, there was an orange to represent food, a dollar bill to represent wealth, a gavel to represent law, and a stethoscope to represent medicine. As a one-year-old child, we have to crawl towards an object and pick one, and whichever we pick, represents our future. I picked the dollar bill, of course, and growing up, my parents always reminded me that I will become wealthy just because I picked this. I’m not entirely sure if I believe that whatever you pick comes true, but I would not mind if it does.”
Context: The informant is ethnically Korean but lives in Canada. His grandparents moved from Korea to Canada, so he is a second-generation Canadian. He says he does not celebrate many Korean traditions now, especially being at college, but his mother has tried to engrain as much of Korean culture in him and his siblings as possible. He said he has no recollection of this celebration himself, since he was only one year old, but his parents often remind him of it. He has seen photos of himself in the hanbok, the traditional Korean clothing, and there is a video on his father’s old video camera of him crawling towards the money. He said it makes sense for him that he chose money, and his parents always joke that they knew he would become money-oriented because of this. He said this celebration still resonates with him, as he is a Business major and wants to go into investment banking. He said money is not the only factor that drives him, but it is important for him, and he hopes to become relatively wealthy in the future.
Analysis: The Doljabi ritual is a life cycle celebration celebrated at a pivotal point in one’s life, their first birthday. This ritual is symbolic, as the object that the baby chooses has the power to predict their future. In this sense, it is not only celebrating birth and the start of childhood, but rather, the start of selfhood, and choosing a future for yourself. The ritual shows the power of folkloric performance in terms of structuring and forming identity. The rest of the baby’s future, including their identity, can be solely based on an object that they choose. Many people put full faith into this tradition, meaning that they believe their trajectory is fixed by it.
This ritual is also a form of homeopathic magic. This object can represent something larger. For example, in this case, choosing money means that they will become wealthy. In this case, like produces like, and grabbing an object that represents money, will imitate a result of wealth for the future. Even though the baby is too young to understand what their actions mean, the adults take it very seriously, and believe that their choice in object is a form of prophecy. It is not just about the child, but the projection of values. In Korean culture, they value success, shown through the objects (wealth, medicine, law). This shows what professions or attributes are desirable in a person. This also highlights the pedagogical aspect of folklore, especially related to culture. In this sense, Korean culture is trying to teach children, at such a young age, what traits and professions are valued in a person. This becomes a way for the child to understand their role in their cultural identity.
Even though the informant shows that they are skeptic of the tradition, the significance of the memory, which is lived on through their family continuing to joke about it, shows the lasting power of performative tradition. Even though Doljabi may be viewed as superstitious and dramatic, its emotional resonance is what allows it to persist throughout generations. Even when these traditions may be detached from institutional belief, they still hold power. Despite people not believing in the actual “magic” of the tradition, they want to perform it because it is still fun, meaningful, and feels important, since it is a tradition.
Lastly, Doljabi also functions as a way to maintain heritage. This is especially the case because the informant grew up outside of Korea, in Canada. It is a way for people to maintain ties to their ancestry and culture. Doljabi is often performed with grandparents and accompanied with Korean food and a hanbok, which is traditional Korean clothing. This shows how folk objects can work together to serve a greater purpose of maintaining cultural heritage.
