Title: Red Wallets & Empty Wallets
General Information about Item:
- Genre and Sub Genre
- Verbal Folklore: Superstition
- Language: English
- Country where Item is from: South Korea
Informant Data:
- The informant was born in Pennsylvania but moved to Georgie when she was around 4 years old, which is where she has lived for most of her life. Both of her parents are from Seoul, Korea so she considers her heritage to be Korean. She is Christian and supports conservative liberalism. Her hobbies are dancing, clogging, photography, napping and games. Her aspiration is to become a successful, independent woman.
Contextual Data:
- Social Context: The informant heard about these superstitions when she was with her mother, who was buying a wallet for herself and to give as a gift someone. More specifically, she learned about these superstitions when told about the appropriate social norms for giving certain gifts to others.
- Cultural Context: The informant suggests that there may be Chinese influence in associating the color red to good luck. She also mentions that this association to the color red can also be observed for money pouches or envelopes that are given as gifts during Korean holidays.
Item:
- Good Luck Superstition: Buying or giving red wallets as gifts
- Bad Luck Superstition: Giving empty wallets as gifts
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Transcript of Associated File:
Informant’s Comments:
- I think for me when I heard of this it was more when my mom was either buying a wallet for herself or buying a wallet to give as a gift to someone. So that’s just like in the context of figuring out gifts for people.
- I think for a lot of Korean holidays, whenever there’s money involved, whatever the money pouch or envelope would be colored red, and so I think it’s also a Chinese superstition that red is good luck so it’s probably related to that.
Collector’s Comments:
- It is interesting to see another Chinese influence in Korean superstitions. Perhaps, Korean superstitions may be studied in conjunction to Chinese superstitions. In addition, in the superstition related to empty wallets, we see another example of homeopathic magic. Here, the ’empty’ wallet is being viewed as a metaphor of lack of wealth.
Collector’s Name: Kyoung Tae Kim (Tim)
Tags/Keywords:
- Superstition/Good Luck/Bad Luck/Korea/Red/Wallet/Homeopathic Magic/China