Koreans believed that magpies delivered good news, and when they saw a magpie chattering, they believed that visitors were coming. The most famous painting related to a magpie is the one with striped tiger (ggach'i wha horangi minhwa): the magpie is chirping to a tiger. The magpie represented good news and the tiger symbolized good luck, since its pronunciation in Chinese sounds similar to good luck (bok). There are many folktales about magpies.
This magpie was scouting around the Jongmyo Shrine and I am convinced embodied the spirit of one of the ruling Korean kings.
I can always use some good news. Bring on the magpies.
No comments:
Post a Comment