Over at Oh My News, Robert Neff has a Halloween column well worth the read for some stories of spooks around Seoul and beyond . . . Check out this clever way to get rid of certain spirits:
According to an article published several decades ago by Yi Kyu-tae, there were several ghosts “sighted” in Korea following the Kabo reforms in 1894-95.
According to him, many of the Korean residents of Seoul were convinced that there were Japanese ghosts haunting the streets of Seoul. For some reason the people called them “Yobosang,” a derogatory name for Koreans used by the Japanese during that period, and believed that Korean women were especially susceptible to these ghosts. At night, if a woman had to go out into the streets, she carefully packed a packet of ground red pepper and placed it in the roomy sleeves of her jacket to be used as a weapon against the Japanese ghost. According to the local belief, the ghosts could not endure the fiery taste of the red pepper.
Fatman is adding red pepper to our stockpiles of garlic and salt.
expanded version of this article available at www.fatmanseoul.com
31/10/2008 at 1:36 am Permalink
It’s not just “foreign” ghosts. Red pepper is never used in food that goes on the 제삿상 because it might scare away the ancestors, and it’s also why red peppers used to be hung in front of houses when boys were born.