KOREAN SUPERSTITIONS YOU NEED TO KNOW
If someone calls you a pig face, it's a compliment! In Korea, pigs are a symbol of wealth and luck, and if you are fortunate enough to have a dream about a pig, it signifies more wealth and luck in your future. If someone has a dream about a pig, they usually run out a buy a lottery ticket. For this same reason, you rub the nose of a pig statue at a Buddhist temple, and you will be rich! I don't know how to tell you to do it, but try to have more dreams about pigs.
Eat lots of sticky foods before an exam, like toffee and yut (a Korean sticky candy). Sticky foods helps the knowledge to "stick" to your head.
Conversely, don't eat anything slippery on the day of the exam, like miyukguk (seaweed soup). This could cause all the knowledge you studied so hard for to slip out of your head.
The number four is very unlucky - why? Because the Chinese word for 4 sounds a lot like the Chinese word for death. The superstition made its way to Korea, and now in Korean elevators, instead of a 4 for the fourth floor, many elevators have the letter F.
If you're fidgeting and shaking your leg right now, stop! You are shaking off all the good luck and wealth you would have had. Look at all the money this guy is losing.
Does this look like a thatched roof with a bucket on top?
This is actually a "raincoat" made out of rice stalks, the same thing Koreans used for thatched roofing. The basket on top is a rain hat. Koreans were very resourceful, making creative and useful things out of available materials.
Picture of "thatched" raincoat from old book:
Old man in rain hat:
Old shoes - top picture right - the shoes are carved out of wood. Bottom picture - these shoes are braided out of rice stalks.
Below on the left is the black hat of a nobleman. To the right is a little hair net shaped like an upside down dixie cup. Before Korea was invaded, men had very long hair and considered it part of their culture and tradition. In fact, it was against the law for men to cut their hair. When the Japanese took over, they forced the Korean men to cut their hair in "western" styles. Korean men tried to hide their hair by putting it on the top of their heads, and twisting it into a "top knot" and then putting it in one of those little hair net cups. Then they would wear another hat - either the black with a large rim, or this one shown here that looks like a fancy folded napkin.
Below is the most curious of all! In the summers, when Korea is very hot and humid, people would go to sleep and hug this "basket" in the shape of a large hot dog. As they were sleeping, the wind could go in and out of the holes in the basket as they held it in their arms. The wind going through the basket hot dog would keep them cool through the night.
SEOLLAL, THE LUNAR NEW YEAR
is the most important holiday of the year. People used to dress up in hanbok, traditional Korean dress - but now mostly wear casual clothing. They get together with family, usually all meeting at the oldest son's home. The oldest son's wife has to do most of the cooking, housework, cleaning and clean-up, so some women are actually reluctant to marry an "oldest son" of the family, because they don't want to do all the work for the relatives every holiday!
Our first Seollal dinner was at the Cho family. They are a wonderful family and we enjoyed every minute!
L to R: Sister Kim, President Cho (Stake Pres.), Sister Barrow, and friend Ann.
Notice the bowl of clear, milky looking liquid on the right. It is a sweet rice drink (everything is made out of rice). It is sort of brown and opaque with little bits of rice floating around in it, and it is sweet and cold. The traditional food is made up of many many dishes, and it is a lot of work for the cook. The Confucian tradition is to set up a table displaying the ancestors' favorite foods. Then you pray to the ancestors and honor them. Then you eat the food. If you have a pig's head, it is nice to display it and then eat it too.
Sister Kim is an angel. She is always doing nice things for missionaries, and everyone else.
SEOLLAL #2
We are so lucky to have such nice friends. We finished the "lunch" at 4:30 pm, rushed home, and took a taxi to the next meal, "dinner" at 5:00. We were invited to Connor's house for dinner with his wife and two children. His daughter works in Seoul, and his son is attending University and studying, studying, studying.
The meal consisted of many different dishes, some small and some large. The small bowls with white stuff in them are "water kimchi" - it's not as hot as the red chili pepper kimchi and made with white radishes.
After dinner, the dessert was brought out - apples, tangerines, and several different rice cookies.
Connor brought out an old book about Korean history, and we were enthralled.
Happy Seollal!
SEOLLAL #3
The following day after church, another family, the Shins, invited us over for "Deok Guk". Deok soup is one of the traditional foods of Seollal. The deok (pronounced duck) is rice that has been beaten into a glutenous, sticky mixture, then rolled or cut into shapes to make noodles. The meal was very nice, very delicious, and a fun experience.
THE MOAT
The diorama below is a mini model of Dongnae-Gu, in the year 1590. About six years ago, the city was digging a new subway station (very close to our apt.), and found some interesting relics: bones, weapons, swords, arrows, skulls with holes in them, and many long straight sticks.
Forget about the subway station - bring in the archaeologists! After further examination and excavation, they discovered that the subway station was right in the middle of the fortress moat! The moat had a stone wall going all around the fortress. It was full of spears, clubs, weapons of all kinds, and lots of bones.
At the time, castle or fortress moats were dug, fortified and then had many sharp sticks pounded into the earth at the bottom of the moat and sticking straight up, then filled with water. If a man tried to get across, he would get speared by a sharp stick. The bottom of the moat was filled with sharp sticks.
Suit of armor and metal hat found in the moat
There is now a museum under the ground in the subway station, exactly where the moat was! We were excited about this new "find" in our neighborhood, so decided to wander down the street. A couple of blocks and there it was -
Dongnae Market, a traditional Korean shopping place.
I love to see what the women are selling, and what they are wearing. This woman is selling various invertebrate sea animals.
This vendor has many many fish to sell, some are being dried.
These plastic tubs are out in the open all day - full of various kinds of kimchi. Bottom left is the anchovy deluxe special kimchi.
This is the special deluxe seaweed - extra large - straight from the ocean!
This woman is drying the seaweed on a rack.
Before these fish are hung up for display, someone has to clean them, removing insides, etc. so that they are ready to sell!
Around the corner from the market was the old Dongnae Government Building.
We explored the grounds and went inside all the buildings.
Also, in our "neighborhood", they are knocking down lots of old houses and little businesses, with plans to build an entire "park" of huge high rise apartments. Many areas look like this - a giant junk heap! Sister Barrow and I went exploring through the junk heap one day looking for roof tiles.
JAGALCHI - is the largest fish market in South Korea. Cruise ships docking in Busan send the tourists there to see the amazing number of fish for sale!
There are eight floors to this building, every square inch is full of something.
Thousands of mini shrimp. These are used in kimchi and add to the flavor as they ferment.
Many many many octopus!
Clams and sea snails
Turtles, large fish, and one eel. Many people love to eat eel. There is one street called "Raw Eel Street", where the whole street is lined with restaurants serving raw eel dishes.
The prawns are tastier when their eyes are looking at you!
Outside by the ocean, there are lots of fishing boats, and lots of people.
These spiky things are sea squirts. We asked how they are cooked. Answer: peel off the sharp outsides and eat them raw with a little sesame oil and rice. Very healthy for you. (all the really weird foods are the "healthiest")
Giant crabs
Hooray for Jagalchi! You can get any kind of sea animal or plant: dried, grilled, filleted, dead, alive, and RAW! There are tons of vendors outside of the actual market selling more and more.
YEONGDO BRIDGE
While looking at the ocean, we had the rare opportunity to see the raising and lowering of Yeongdo Bridge, the only "bascule" bridge in Korea (bridges that raise and lower to allow larger ships through). Yeongdo is a half bascule, as only half the bridge raises - every day at 2:00 pm for ten minutes. We were lucky to be right there at 2:00!
A parade of boats went through, then it was lowered until tomorrow.
AQUATIC FOUNTAIN SHOW - Next we ran off to the largest inside water fountain show in the world (?) I guess it's true??
Water comes out of the ceiling in different patterns. It also sprays out of the floor in different patterns. Add to that the lights changing all the time, and music. It was great.
These two friends are holding hands. It is socially acceptable for girlfriends to hold hands, mother and daughter, or boys who are friends or relatives. Almost everyone is holding on to someone.
DO YOU EVER WORK, OR JUST SIGHTSEE?
It appears that we run around seeing and doing fun things, which we do on Saturdays. But we really do spend most of our lives with the missionaries in the Mission Office. We love them.
This Elder is pretty tired.
This Elder is really tired. He works hard all day!
This man is really tired. He can sleep anywhere!
It's Sister Cho's birthday - so bring in the pizza! If you look at the pizza on the lower left, you may notice that the crust has little hamburgers all around the edge!
Missionaries are usually hungry.
It's Sister Cho's birthday - so bring in the pizza! If you look at the pizza on the lower left, you may notice that the crust has little hamburgers all around the edge!
We had the privilege of another visit to President Bae. He is smart and funny at age 92.
This woman is known as the "Daeshin Grandma". She knows all the missionaries, calls them frequently, loves visits from missionaries and everything about missionaries. She has lived in Busan for 50 years, and has been a big fan of missionaries for the whole time. Doesn't she look cute in the BYU sweatshirt?
NAMSAN MOUNTAIN - This mountain is a sacred place to all Buddhists, and has important historical significance. The Silla dynasty was founded in 57 BC and lasted 992 years, one of the longest lasting dynasties in world history.
When Buddhism became the king's religion, many people spent decades carving Buddhist images in mountains, caves; building stone pagodas and wooden pagodas, building temples and hermitages. There are many different ways to hike Namsan Mountain. The path we used had a multitude of surprising relief carvings, sculptures, pagodas, pieces of structures, parts of temples, and other buildings. You can't hike too far without seeing something significant. At the risk of being boring (another hike?) I will not comment and you can scroll through the pictures rapidly (except on a few).
These are tombs of the kings and queens. They are in clusters throughout the city of Gyeongju. Most of them have never been opened. They are not only sacred, but you don't want to be responsible for letting out a lot of evil spirits.
Buddhas without heads - After the Silla dynasty, the Jeoson dynasty came into power with strong Confucian ideals, among them no idol worship. Therefore, the Confucians went all around knocking heads off the Buddhas.
Pieces of a Pagoda
Little piles of stones stacked up for good luck
The end of a great day! Off to celebrate at our favorite restaurant!
