Before Cotton: Clothes Were a Winter Problem Before cotton became common, ordinary Koreans mainly depended on hemp cloth . Silk was available, but it was expensive and mostly used by the upper class. Hemp was strong, but it was rough and did not keep people very warm. That was a serious problem during Korea's cold winters. This meant that many poor people suffered severely in winter, and in extreme cases some even died from the cold. After cotton was introduced, this situation changed dramatically. There is also an interesting story about how cotton first arrived in Korea. 1363–1364: The Seeds Came from Yuan China In 1363 , near the end of the Goryeo Dynasty, a Korean diplomatic mission went to the Yuan Dynasty , the Mongol-ruled dynasty in China. One official on that mission, Mun Ik-jeom , returned to Korea in 1364 with about ten cotton seeds. According to a well-known story, he hid the seeds inside a writing brush case (this is the famous anecdote), but it is important to note t...
There have been many ups and downs in 2021. The year 2021 was the year of the white cow which is an animal that symbolizes honesty faithfulness and patience and 2022 in Korea is the year of the black tiger.
Tigers are nowadays the most endangered animals but five Siberian tigers (=Quintuplet tiger cubs) was born at Yong In Zoo (Inside the Everland amusement park). This is a really rare case, tigers usually produce a litter of 2~3 cubs. In celebration of 2022 New year, they were introduced to the public for the first time after their birth and many people visited the zoo to get feel tiger's spirit or energy.
Symbol of Korea.
The tiger symbolizes bravery and strength and was considered as a mountain guardian for the Korean people from ancient times. Therefore, people would have paintings or talismans of tigers to defeat misfortune or drive evil spirits away.
The tiger of Korea has long been with Koreans from the very beginning. A tiger also appears in the founding myth of Korea. In the legend, a tiger and a bear wanted to become human. Therefore, they asked their wish the son of heaven and he said they could transform human if they could eat only garlic and mugwort during 100 days. However, the tiger gives up after 20 days, while bear made it and turned into a woman. This woman got married Hwanung who is the son of heaven and gives birth to Dangun who is known as the founder of Korea.
In the legend, the main character of the founding myth is a bear rather than a tiger, but there are far more stories of tigers in Korean folklore. There is a reason.
In the past, there used to be a lot of tigers in Korea where there were surrounded by 70% of the mountains but many tigers came down to town and attacked people. Therefore we have been tiger hunters called Chakho Gapsa (착호갑사) in Joseon Dynasty. After that, the number of tigers has declined sharply and is now an endangered species. Nowadays Koreans consider tigers to be fearful but also auspicious creatures and tigers appeared frequently in traditional fairy tales and paintings of Korea, probably because of familiarity with what our ancestors saw often.
Tigers started being a symbol of Korea around the early 20th century, thanks to Choi Nam-son who was the first person to draw a map of the Korean Peninsula in the shape of a tiger.
The map has since sparked a plethora(수많은) of re-creations.(재창조). Since then, tigers have been used as mascots at numerous international events such as the mascot Soodoli in the year 1988 Seoul Olympics and Soohorang is a white tiger the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.
The song of a tiger.
Most recently, the Korea Tourism Organization made a promotional video with the story of a tiger in a song, the lyric of the first line 범(tiger) 내려 온다.~ ( is coming.) Tiger is coming not Santa Cross.
This is the song by traditional Korean music-inspired band Leenalchi