There's a lot of superstitions related to couples in Korea. Indeed, Korea seems to be a somewhat superstitious culture (though like in the US, most people don't seem to take and seriously), and one could easily write a whole book about all the idiosyncrasies Korean culture has about couples in general. I learned a new superstition this week, though, that I wanted to share.
I was walking with a group of college students along the๋์๊ถ (Deoksugung) Palace Wall. I was on a Seoul-Mate Tour, which is basically a student organization that gives free cultural tours to foreigners in Seoul. As we were walking, they told me that there is a belief that if a couple walks down this road that it means they will break up. Apparently, there is a family court at the end of the pathway where married couples have to go to get a divorce. So, it's thought that if an unmarried couple walks down that path, it means that they will break up at some point in the near future. In fact, they said there's a story that sometimes people take their girlfriends or boyfriends down this road to tell them they want to break up (in lieu of telling them verbally). I said "that horrible!" They just laughed and said that it doesn't actually happen (that we know of, at least).
 |
| Photo by Gwonie S. Nam |
