|
|
[그렉의 한국 엿보기] Lucky 7
As we climbed the stairs to our Korean hotel room I counted out the floor numbers. Our room was on the seventh floor and with our luggage weighing us down I began to wish we had decided to wait for the elevator, along with the other twenty members of our tour group. On the landing to the third floor I stopped to catch my breath. There was a sign on the wall marking the floor where we were and the number of the next floor. It said 3/5. Confused, we continued on and I found the sign to be right: there was no fourth floor.
A Korean friend was able to provide the reason why. The number four in Korea is often associated with death and so is considered bad luck. This is similar to the beliefs about the number 13 in Western English speaking cultures. The superstition about 4 in Korea seems to come from the closeness of the pronunciation of the number with that for the word for death. As a result it is common in some buildings to skip the fourth floor or to label it with an 'F' in place of the number. A quick trip to the local hospital proved this to be true. On the elevator keypad the number 4 was missing and had been replaced by the innocent letter 'F'.
 [그렉의 한국 엿보기] Lucky 7 청취
In comparison, the number 13 is the unluckiest number in Western English speaking cultures. This is certainly true in the Eastern part of the United States where I'm from. Thirteen is an unbalanced number and some believe that Judas who betrayed Jesus may have been the thirteenth person to arrive at the Last Supper. These days, many buildings do not include a thirteenth floor but pass directly from 12 to 14. In addition to fearing the number there is a further bad association between the number thirteen and Friday. Initially this was for historical reasons but currently probably has to do with the well-known Friday the 13th movies that have brought the superstition into the cultural consciousness.
However,even though both cultures have different numbers for bad luck, the number symbolizing good luck seems to be the same everywhere: lucky 7. From Egyptian mythology, seven symbolizes perfection or completeness. Whether it's in the casino or everyday life, seven is expected to bring good fortune. References to the number 7 are everywhere in Western culture. There are 7 Wonders of the World and 7 days in the week, not to mention the 7 deadly sins or the 7 dwarves.
When we finally finished climbing the stairs and reached our hotel rooms we dropped off our bags and took a moment to relax. We had climbed five flights of stairs to reach the seventh floor. While it surprised us at first to skip the fourth floor we were somewhat grateful as well. With our little bit of extra energy it seemed to be good fortune that we didn't need to walk any longer. We were safe on the luckiest floor in the hotel and never had to set foot on either the fourth or thirteenth.
|
 / 입력시간: 2008. 04.01. 16:03
|
|
|
|
