Korean Superstitions

Korean Superstitions are just as interesting and strange as superstitions in your home country. Take a look at some of the more interesting superstitions in Korea below and add ones from your home country as we’d all love to read about similarities and differences amongst the superstitions of the world.

• Fan Death – This one is a bit of a strange one and one most expats in Korea don’t get at all. Basically if you go to bed with the fan on (especially close to your face) in a room with the windows and door closed you’ll suffocate and die.

• Test Day Superstitions – a) Don’t wash your hair, because everything you studied will be washed away and go down the drain. b) Don’t eat seaweed soup (mi-yuk guk 미역국) because all that knowledge will slip away from eating that slippery seaweed. Eat yut 엿, a kind of Korean toffee that will help to make all that knowledge stick to your brain. c) For the big university entrance exam friends or parents should buy a ring or necklace for the test taker to give them luck so they can pass
• At night – a) Don’t clip your nails at night because mice or other animals may eat them and take your spirit. Another story is that if you do this late at night ghosts will come. This Korean superstition comes from long ago when there was no electricity so cleaning up those pesky nail clippings can be difficult. b) If you whistle (or sing) at night then snakes will come.
• Number 4 – This is like the number 13 in Western Culture. You’ll see many elevators that put the letter ‘F’ instead of ’4′. The number 7 is a lucky number in Korea.

• Red – a) Lucky in many cultures this isn’t a lucky number in Korea. In fact, you only write a dead person’s name in red so never write a name in red in Korea or they will die. b) Boonshinsaba 분신사바 is a game that Korean kids play to conjure up a ghost. Both kids hold the red pen on a piece of paper and say some kind of spell and then ask some questions. (Bunshinsaba is also a Korean movie).
• Gifts – a) Don’t buy your boyfriend or girlfriend shoes as a gift or they’ll run away from you. b) If you go to a housewarming party be sure to bring laundry detergent as it brings good fortune (wealth) to the new occupants of the house.
• Women – a) If you sit an a cold rock or surface like a concrete floor it will make you infertile. b) If you hold your chopsticks too closely together it will take you a long time to get married.
• Babies – a) shave their heads and they’ll have a thick full head of hair. b) don’t tickle them too much or they will stutter when they grow up c) On the 1st birthday you lay out a pencil (good at studying), string (long life), money (will be rich). Other items are used nowadays like a stethoscope, golf ball, rice. Wait and see what the baby goes for and that will be his/her fortune. d) Pull or massage your baby’s legs so they’ll grow taller. Pinch their noses to give them that more western looking nose I guess. e) After you give birth you should eat seaweed soup to produce more milk and to recovery. ( This does make sense as seaweed is super nutritious)
• Physical – a) If you have big ear lobes you’ll be rich. Especially if those lobes are detached I guess is the best way to describe it. b) If your second toe is longer than the big toe you’ll be lucky. (Funny, there is plastic surgery here to reverse that). c) If you touch a butterfly and then your eyes you’ll go blind. d) If your legs shake, when sitting then your luck will run away. I guess like a lot of Korean superstitions they are made up by parents trying to stop kids from behaving a certain. Fear is quite the motivator. e) If you sleep after you eat you will turn into a cow or be reincarnated as a cow.
• Age and Marriage – a) 4 years difference in age is the best in Korea for your mate. If you marry someone five years older or younger in age then “won jin sal” will bother you. You’ll fight with your spouse every day, but never divorce. Also if you marry someone six years older or younger than you are, “sang chun sal” will bring you bad fortune. As a couple you’ll be happy, but you will always be poor. b) If a bridegroom smiles a lot in a wedding, he will get a daughter as a first child. If a bride takes some nuts, she will get a lot of sons. (Traditionally, the parents of a bridegroom throw nuts and plums to a bride after a wedding. At that time, a bride puts nuts or plums in her shirt.)

• Sleep and Dreams a) If you have a dream about a pig then you’ll have good fortune. b) Dream about a snake and you or your daughter just might be pregnant. d) Sleep with your head facing west is bad as only people are buried pointing that direction. e) When you have that dream, where you think you are awake, but can’t move (sleep paralysis) that is because a ghost is sitting on you and sucking the life out of you. This isn’t just a superstition in Korea, although not sure if the interpretation is the same around the world.
• Animals – a) If you see a frog with red eyes then bad luck will come. b) Like other nations, crows are bad luck. If you see a crow or raven in the morning then bad luck will follow you all day. c) However, if you see a magpie then good news and luck will come your way.
• Food – a) always serve two scoops of rice or else you may risk loosing that friendship to whom you are serving the food too. b) Don’t put your chopsticks standing straight up as that is only done at funerals. This is one of the first Korean superstitions I read about. c) If you kill an insect while eating your will kill someone when you grow up d) eating from the center of the rice bowl means that you wish your mother ill e) Bad luck or bad manners at least if you don’t finish all your rice