...and this little piggy was sacred...

An interesting experience that I forgot to mention in my last blog entry:

My school is in a quiet part of the city, and right in front, there is a rather large intersection that usually has perhaps one or two cars driving through. Last week, while walking home after work one day, I noticed in the middle of this intersection there was a bit of a ceremony going on. And it was some of my school's teachers. I had heard rumours about a ceremony that was held when someone bought a new car, and this was my first sighting of said event.

In Korea, when people buy a new car, they then go and buy a pig's head. Yes, a real pig's head. They open the bonnet of the car, and place a little shrine in front. They light some candles, set up the pig's head, and lay out round fruit (the roundness is symbolic), and then spend a while praying in front of the shrine. People stuff 10,000 won notes into the crevices of the pig's head - the nose, the ears - which the new owner then pockets. I got there just as this ceremony was ending, so I had no time to take a photo, but this site has a nice little picture of something similar, and will also explain - in much better detail than I ever could - the significance of the pig.

In terms of the new car, the pig has materialistic symbolism: pigs represent wealth. But the pig this year is even more important, for it is the Year of the Golden Pig. (This is where the above site will explain better, but I'll give you a quick idea.)

People know about the Chinese Year of...dogs, dragons, snakes, rats, etc. We are in the Year of the Pig (incidentally, this is my year); but more than that, through another cycle, it is the Year of the Golden Pig, something that happens only every 60 years. But even better than that!: using some other Chinese principle, this is a special Year of the Golden Pig, that only happens every 600 years! Basically, what all this means, is that it is an extremely lucky time to be born, so anyone expecting a child this year, your little 'un should grow up to be very wealthy and very healthy.

Pig related knick-knacks are currently taking over most of the stores in Korea; I already have a golden pig, given to me before Christmas by a random gentleman in a restaurant. So you can see that the pig is of great importance in this country, and in fact, in much of Asia. That site again is here, in case you missed it: it's very interesting, and describes the significance better than I could.

But the image of the back of that pig's head and what had been left inside of it still gives me the shivers!