Tag Archives: Korea

Not Washing Hair (Korea) – Kevin King

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General Information About Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Pre-test custom, superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Korea
  • Informant: LL
  • Date Collected: 10/28/21

Informant Data: LL is a sophomore (‘24) at Dartmouth College born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended Harvard-Westlake School, one of the top-ranked high schools in the country. She mentioned that she and her Korean family are fairly superstitious. 

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In Korea, New Years Day is a big celebration for people and offers them a chance at a fresh start. A major tradition that people do is to not wash their hair, for they believe it will wash away their good luck. This ritual is often practiced by students on testing days. 
  • Social Context: LL’s mother passed down this superstition to her as soon as she entered middle school. It is a tradition that LL used throughout middle and high school. I collected this superstition from LL during an in-person interview. Her parents were always very strict with her in her studies, and always wanted her to be the best in the class and score highly on tests. Thus, they were adamant that she followed this superstition as a child.  

Item: The night before a student takes an exam, they don’t wash their hair with shampoo because it is believed that this act will wash away (1) good luck and (2) all the information that the students studied. 

Associated File

Shampoo debate: Are you washing your hair enough? | CTV News

Transcript:

  • “Before I went to bed the nights before I would have a test, my mom would come into my room to make sure that my hair was dry.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant noted that she thought at times her parents made her follow this superstition to too much of an extreme. Now, she doesn’t follow it as closely. 

Collector’s Comments:

  • I could relate with this superstition because during Chinese New Years, my mother would tell my sister not to wash her hair because it would wash away good luck. This isn’t really something I would follow, however. 

Collector’s Name: Kevin King

Tags/Keywords:

  • Superstition 
  • Korea
  • Hair

Eating Yeot (Korea) – Kevin King

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General Information About Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Pre-test custom, superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Korea
  • Informant: JC
  • Date Collected: 10/27/21

Informant Data: JC is a sophomore (‘24) at Dartmouth College. He was born in Korea, but his family moved to Singapore when he was young, and he lived there his entire life. He also served in the Singaporean military as an officer for two years after he graduated from Singapore American School.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In Korean, the word yeot comes from the Korean word that means “to stick.” The word also means “to pass.” Yeot is also a sticky Korean Taffy that is made out of rice. 
  • Social Context: JC collected this item from his parents when he was young in Singapore and he shared it with me via an in-person interview. His parents were very traditional Korean parents and wanted him to succeed, and they were fairly strict when it came to his performance in schools. They were also very superstitious and he mentioned that they would force him to do various things before exams that he didn’t know the reasoning behind for the longest time.

Item: In Korea, before taking a test, you don’t eat seaweed soup because it is a slippery food that will cause important information to “slip out” of your brain. Instead, you are supposed to eat yeot, a sticky Korean taffy made of glutinous rice, especially before taking a standardized test. 

Associated File

Transcript:

  • “I remember so clearly that before I left my house to take the ACT, my mom sat me down and made me eat a piece of yeot. I had no choice whatsoever in terms of whether or not I had to eat it. I wasn’t going to be able to leave if I didn’t.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant said that he gets why his parents were so adamant about following this superstition since it is such a widespread one through Korea and plans on following the superstition when he has children and they have important exams. 

Collector’s Comments:

  • I was very interested by the direct relation between the nature of the food and how it symbolizes one’s body. However, I don’t think I would follow this myself

Collector’s Name: Kevin King

Tags/Keywords:

  • Superstition
  • Yeot
  • Korea