The podcast is one year old! We break down the year and discuss Korean first birthday traditions, folklore, and spirits. We also regale mysterious births in Korean history.
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Music by Soraksan
Top tier Patrons
Angel Earl
Joel Bonomini
Jamie Staley
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NOTES
- It’s our birthday! Dark Side is a year old. Thanks
- Some stats
- 53 episodes (including this one)
- 17,300 downloads
- Cho Doosoon most downloaded episode
- Our favourite episodes
- Shawn: Exorcism, Korean Folktale Types
- Joe: Episodes that made me research nagging questions I’d always had
- History
- Korean Disneyland
- 2011 Landslide
- Dynamited bridge on start of Korean War
- Landmarks episodes (11 Haunted Places, 8 Weird Landmarks)
- Birthdays in culture
- Koreans celebrate Buddha’s birthday and Jesus’s birthday
- Ancestor birthdays were celebrated (saengshin-jae)
- During delivery
- red peppers and pine boughs hung to ward off evil
- red ribbons hung and soil scattered to pray for easy delivery
- 100 days 한고비
- b/c infant mortality rate was high
- 100 ddeok must be given to 100 people in order to live 100 years
- But not to beggars or children
- Baekseolgi – flawlessly white to represent divinity and longevity
- also red bean cake to chase away evil spirits and wishes for healthy growth
- Injeolmi – grow firmly
- Osaeksongpyeon
- Harmony
- Filled and solid for a wide heart
- Must wear clothes made from 100 pieces of cloth from 100 homes
- 1 year – 2nds 고비
- BUT — A child should not eat any of these commemorative cakes
- They will die
- Children should not eat any ritual foods
- Originally, the rice cakes were for ghostly consumption, not human
- Spirits don’t attach themselves to everyday foods, but they’re attached to foods associated with thanking them
- Childbearing Deity
- Samshin – household deity (most often female)
- Oversees birth and growth
- Can be the spirit of an ancestor
- Worshipped on day of child’s birth
- Offerings of miyeok-guk, rice, and water
- Cheol-ryoong – household deity also related to children
- Keeps peace for children and home
- Highly regional worship traditions
- Strict worship traditions
- Ceasing worship results in misfortune
- Samshin – household deity (most often female)
- Child Selling (ai-palgi)
- Child born with misfortune (weak, ill, believed to have short lifespan) given to quasi-foster parent
- Foster parent could be natural object, deity, monk, or shaman
- Believed to reverse child’s misfortune
- Performed from birth to as late as seven years old
- Child born with misfortune (weak, ill, believed to have short lifespan) given to quasi-foster parent
- Ushering Off the Placenta (taechae)
- Placenta was considered sacred, needed proper ritual disposal
- Wrapped and stored with care, often near Samshin shrine
- Often burned; ashes washed away or buried
- Someone must guard the placenta at all times, even while burning
- Placenta could be stolen for use in folk medicine, especially in concoctions to induce pregnancy; placentas were thought to contain curative powers
- A stolen, eaten (by animals), or damaged placenta could bring misfortune to the baby (taeju)
- Other taboos: keeper should blow on the fire or warm themselves with the fire
- Sometimes buried
- Placenta was buried under a tree so the child would grow like the tree
- Disposing the placenta should be inconspicuous
- Nobility and upperstatus enshrined placentas
- Royal Placenta Chambers of King Sejong
- Sejo destroyed a few of these
- Royal Placenta Chambers of King Sejong
- Placenta was considered sacred, needed proper ritual disposal
- Mystical births
- Bihyeong (6th cen.)
- Normal birth, but born to a commoner and the ghost of King Jinji
- Wonhyo (7th cen.)
- Multicoloured clouds covered skies when born
- Gung-ae (9th cen.)
- Founder of Taebong (Late Goguryeo)
- Rainbow over house; full set of teeth; scales
- Gyeon Hwon (9th cen.)
- Founder of Late Baekjae
- Mother had contact with a man who turned into a snake (or worm)
- Drank tiger’s milk as a child
- Yi Soon-shin (16th cen.)
- Father killed a Imugi; two butterflies from the corpse – sons were born; one had shifty eyes, the other calm eyes; father killed the shifty eyed one; the calm eyed one was Yi
- Bihyeong (6th cen.)
Horror movies
- The Omen
- Happy Birthday to Me
- Demons 2
- Madhouse
- Spookies
