๐Ÿ”ฎ Superstitions in Korea: Numbers, Dreams, and Symbols

 

ํ•ด์™€ ๋‹ฌ ํƒ€๋กœ ์นด๋“œ

๐Ÿ”ฎ Superstitions in Korea: Numbers, Dreams, and Symbols

Ever wondered why some elevators in Korea skip the 4th floor? Or why Koreans avoid giving shoes as gifts? Korean superstitions are deeply rooted in history and language, and they still influence everyday life. Let’s explore the fascinating world of Korean beliefs about numbers, dreams, and symbols.

๐Ÿ“š Table of Contents

1. Unlucky Numbers: The Fear of 4

In Korean, the number 4 (์‚ฌ, “sa”) sounds like the word for “death” (์‚ฌ, ๆญป). As a result, many buildings skip the 4th floor, or label it “F” instead of “4.”

  • Elevator buttons: 1, 2, 3, F, 5...
  • Hospital rooms rarely use 4
  • Some people avoid phone numbers or license plates with 4

2. Dreams That Predict the Future

Koreans believe that certain dreams can predict good or bad luck. For example:

  • ๐Ÿท Dreaming of a pig = wealth & luck
  • ๐Ÿ’ฉ Dreaming of poop = financial luck (seriously!)
  • ๐ŸŒŠ Dreaming of water = life changes or birth

Some people even buy lucky dreams from others in exchange for money!

3. Symbolic Gifts and Taboos

Certain items are considered unlucky or inappropriate as gifts:

  • ๐Ÿฅฟ Shoes: It means the person might walk away from your life
  • ✂️ Scissors/Knives: Can “cut” relationships
  • ๐ŸŽ Clocks: Symbolize the end or death

4. Key Vocabulary and Example Sentences

  • ๋ฏธ์‹  (mi-shin) – superstition
  • ๊ฟˆ (kkum) – dream
  • ์ˆซ์ž (sut-ja) – number
  • ์ฃฝ์Œ (juk-eum) – death
  • ์„ ๋ฌผ (seon-mul) – gift

ํ•œ๊ตญ์–ด: ํ•œ๊ตญ์—์„œ๋Š” 4๋ผ๋Š” ์ˆซ์ž๊ฐ€ ์ฃฝ์Œ์„ ๋œปํ•ด์„œ ํ”ผํ•ฉ๋‹ˆ๋‹ค.
๋ฐœ์Œ: han-guk-e-seo-neun sa-ra-neun sut-ja-ga juk-eum-eul tteut-hae-seo pi-ham-ni-da
์˜์–ด: In Korea, people avoid the number 4 because it symbolizes death.

ํ•œ๊ตญ์–ด: ๋ผ์ง€ ๊ฟˆ์„ ๊พธ๋ฉด ๋ณต์ด ์˜จ๋‹ค๊ณ  ํ•ด์š”.
๋ฐœ์Œ: dwae-ji kkum-eul kku-myeon bo-gi on-da-go hae-yo
์˜์–ด: They say if you dream of a pig, good fortune will come.

ํ•œ๊ตญ์–ด: ์‹ ๋ฐœ์„ ์„ ๋ฌผํ•˜๋ฉด ๋– ๋‚œ๋‹ค๋Š” ๋ง์ด ์žˆ์–ด์š”.
๋ฐœ์Œ: shin-bal-eul seon-mul-ha-myeon tteo-nan-da-neun mal-i i-sseo-yo
์˜์–ด: There’s a saying that giving shoes as a gift means the person will leave.

5. ๐Ÿค” Did you know?

The Korean lottery office often sees more winners during certain dream seasons! After Chuseok or New Year’s, people rush to buy lottery tickets based on good dream omens. Dream books, called ๊ฟˆ ํ•ด๋ชฝ ์ฑ…, are even sold in convenience stores!

6. Discuss Superstitions with a Korean Tutor

๐ŸŒ™ Curious about more Korean cultural beliefs?

๐Ÿ‘‰ Book a lesson with me on italki and let’s talk about Korean traditions, dreams, and everyday language.
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