Lunar New Year and the Straw Man - The Korea Times koreatimes.co.kr - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from koreatimes.co.kr Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Today is the Korean Lunar New Year and children throughout the country are busy bowing down before their parents, relatives and even elder siblings in hopes of obtaining some New Year money. It is a cherished tradition that is likely to be practiced for many more years, but not all New Year’s traditions survived.
In the fall of 1900, Seoul was temporarily graced by an intrepid English doctor named Ella Campbell Scarlett. Like many of these temporary presences in the Land of the Morning Calm, we know very little about her stay in Korea, but, judging from Horace N. Allen, the ever-cranky American minister to Korea, she was quite the character.
In the fall of 1900, Seoul was temporarily graced by an intrepid English doctor named Ella Campbell Scarlett. Like many of these temporary presences in the Land of the Morning Calm, we know very little about her stay in Korea, but, judging from Horace N. Allen, the ever-cranky American minister to Korea, she was quite the character.
“Old sayings are generally shadows of skeletons of things that once had a being,” declared a newspaper article from the late 1880s. The article was about a Korean artifact that had been added to the Smithsonian Institution or museum and was on display. The artifact was, of course, a Jaewoong (재웅), a doll made from rice straw with some Korean coins (cash) placed within its stomach.