Crows, culture and changing perceptions
Published: 18 Feb. 2025, 00:01
The author is an essayist.
Several years ago, I received an email from an American friend living in Massachusetts. He asked, "Is it true that Koreans eat 'Raven Cake' on the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year?" I had no idea what he was referring to.
The only food that came to mind in connection with the Lunar New Year’s full moon was yakshik, a traditional sweet rice dish. Curious, I searched for old recipes to see if yaksik had ever contained crow meat. To my surprise, I found a small note in a recipe introduction: “Yaksik is also known as oban.” The Chinese character “烏” in oban means crow, which led me to visit the Yeonorang Seonyeo Theme Park in Pohang, a place steeped in crow-related folklore, where I met Prof. Jeong Yeon-tae from the Chugye University for the Arts.
A crow and Chinese character for crow, "O".
Perhaps for this reason, our ancestors regarded crows as sacred beings. For instance, the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo (37 B.C. to A.D. 668) worshipped the three-legged crow, Samjok-o. Our forebears saw the crow’s black color as a symbol of solemnity and reverence. Even today, academic gowns at graduation ceremonies, priests' vestments, judges' robes and even the shrouds of grim reapers are all black.
However, over time, perceptions of crows shifted from positive to negative.
Once something is viewed negatively, it is difficult to see it in any other light, and this holds true for crows. Expressions like “Did you eat crow meat?” (implying forgetfulness) and “White herons should not mingle where crows gather” (discouraging association with the wrong crowd) are common in our everyday language. There is even a saying that if one neglects personal hygiene, “a crow might call you its older brother.”
We have undergone extensive education over the years, yet much of what we have learned subtly governs our perceptions through ingrained biases. The cawing of crows in Goguryeo times likely sounded the same as it does today, yet people’s interpretations of the sound have changed. Education shapes our awareness, often embedding ideologies suited to the times and fostering compliance with prevailing systems. This is why we must occasionally question the knowledge and information we take for granted.
Crows, which have lived in groups alongside humans for centuries, have given us the term ohapjijol, meaning a disorderly, unstructured crowd. This expression likely originated because crow flocks function as family units rather than following a leader. During the late Western Han Dynasty, when Wang Mang usurped the throne and established the Xin Dynasty, a general, while defeating Wang’s forces, declared, “They are nothing more than ohapjijung,” meaning a ragtag assemblage. Over time, this evolved into ohapjijol, a phrase that persists in our lexicon today.
History has shown that such disorganized groups sometimes gain power. When an uninformed crowd is infused with righteous indignation under a seemingly noble pretext, even an ohapjijol can become formidable. Dictators often exploit this phenomenon by deliberately creating scapegoats to incite public fury.
The world is a mix of things visible and invisible, things understood only when revealed and things comprehended only in hindsight. Perceptions shift depending on perspective — what one sees from one vantage point can look entirely different from another.
Translated using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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