Throwing Salt When Returning from a Funeral

Title: Throwing Salt When Returning from a Funeral

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Sunglim Kim was born and raised in Seoul, Korea until the age of 17. Her family origins are Korean. When she was a junior in high school she moved to the United States, and went to high school in Seattle, Washington. She then went to UC Berkeley for her undergraduate degree, went back to work in Korea for a few years, and then came back to the United States to get her masters degree at the University of Kansas, and then went back to Berkeley for her PHD. Currently, she is a professor of Korean Art and Culture, in the department of Art History at Dartmouth College. This is her 7^thyear teaching at Dartmouth College. She is a mother of two children.

Contextual Data:

Social Context:When Sunglim Kim was 13 years old, and living in Seoul, Korea, her dad left for a funeral without her mom, and when he came back, her mom performed the superstition explained in the item below. She knew that this was a common practice in her culture beforehand. However, this was the first time she witnessed someone practicing this superstition. She agrees that it was a good idea and it was something that her family continued to do frequently, and Sunglim Kim continues to practice this today. Sunglim Kim also explained that women usually do not go to funerals, so her mom would usually be at home whenever her dad went to a funeral. This is because her mom normally needed to look after her and tend to domestic duties.
Cultural Context:Women in general usually did not attend funerals. This was because they would need to stay home and tend to their kids and other domestic duties. Women who are pregnant especially do not go to funerals, because women did not want to see anything negative during a time of pregnancy, with the idea that this might bring bad things into their child’s life. This superstition originated in Korean culture, and it was a very much engrained and a traditional part of their culture. It was a superstition accepted by most households, according to Sunglim Kim, and also accepted by all ages.

Item:

When someone comes back from a funeral, which is usually the man or husband, the family member at home will throw salt on them as they enter the door to ensure that they do not carry with them any spirits of the dead into the house. Spirits of the dead that entered the house could potentially be harmful, and bring more death or negative things to the family. The salt would remove the dead spirits, and maintain the purity of the person and the house.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript of Associated File:

“Whenever my father came back from funerals, and then my mother, before he entered, would always put some salt around him.”

Informants Comments:

Sunglim Kim believed this to be an important superstition to abide by when someone returned to the house after a funeral. She said that normally her mom did not go to the funerals, so it was usually her mom that was throwing salt on her dad when he returned.

Collector’s Comments:

I thought this was a very interesting superstition because it demonstrates gender roles within Korean culture. It was traditionally the man that was going to the funerals and the woman that stayed at home. This shows that the women’s duties are very much valued, and women can’t get much time off from tending to their kids. Also, it shows that pregnant women are treated very well in the time of pregnancy since pregnant women were not allowed to go to funerals since they were not meant to see anything negative in the time of pregnancy. This is also an example of a Conversion Superstition, which means if A, then B, unless C. So in this case, if the husband goes to a funeral, then he will bring spirits of the dead with him back to the house unless he gets salt put on him.

Collector’s Name: Kipling Weisel

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Dartmouth Folklore Archive