In the first birthday party, we often arrange a couple of items in front of the baby and let him/her select one to foretell his/her future.
The traditional items are a skein of thread, a pencil(or a writing brush), and a bank note. The skein of thread sybolizes a long life, pencil studiousness, and the bank note wealth. These days we add a computer mouse and a microphone, each represents IT expertise and entertainer’s talent.
Coming saturday is my daughter’s first birthday. But we held the party for it this saturday, because we have the traditional New Year’s Day in a fortnight and people are going to their home coming saturday.
And in this ceremony Nausikaa, in spite of our vague hope that she pick up the bank note, had picked up the pencil.
It’s just a snapshot of the life in Korea. Thanks.
Thank you for sharing your daughter’s 1st birthday photo! You have a beautiful family!
As a side note, I remember my brother’s first birthday…he picked the skein of thread. My mother told me that I picked the pencil. So far, the fortunes have been correct as my brother made it back safely after a 1 year in Iraq and I still take courses at the university.
I wonder whether part of the effect is caused by the parents telling a child from a young age what they picked. If your mom reminded you every so often that you picked the pencil, perhaps that would influence you towards scholarship…?
That’s an interesting point, klewlis. My mother told me about my “future” when I was in high school, either as a freshman or sophomore. I was already quite studious, but I do not know if I unconsciously increased my efforts after that bit of news. I wish I had tapped the money with my pencil…perhaps my fortunes would be a bit different now, eh?
Only one objection I would like to express.
Is it not too far fetch to call her a Greek name? Such name like Nausikaa is even for a Greek girl sounding a lot too weird and one of the things a (Greek) parent tries to avoid! Now I’m thinking about the Korean culture, and find it even more absurd to give her such a name. How will her friends call her? Does “Nausikaa” fit well to the Korean language?
What a beautiful picture of your family! Thanks for sharing.
I went to a part Korean 1st bday party for a little girl and they had the same ceremony where the baby picked an object in front of her. She (and the mom & grandma) wore traditional Korean dresses. I remember there was a very thick cake where a little bit of it seemed to go a long way… reminded me of elven bread.
And thank you for your concern. I didn’t know it would be weird for a Greek girl, too. Anyway, there was a lot of debate about this name and we(me and my wife) finally had shortened it to just “Nau(a bit like Nah-woo in Korean pronunciation)” for her official name. And I have attached Chinese characters for it, as many Korean names are in Chinese characters. “나(nah)우(woo)(娜優: beauty and excellence)”. But Nausikaa is going to be her unofficial name. And my father prefers “Nausikaa”, and he keeps protesting our having cut off her name. He IS weird, isn’t he?
Anyway this name is quite well known as the character of a Miyazaki’s animation “Kaze-no Tani-no Naushika”, or “Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind” and her cousins like to call her Nausikaa(nah-woo-shi-kah).
Aurelia wrote:
Minshey, Nausikaa is such a cutie! I hope she had a great birthday.
Was the computer next to you on? If it wasn’t, may I submit it to a certain site?
Thanks.
It’s a karaoke machine. but nobody was singing on it. Just for the background fanfare. Does it matter for something if it was a computer?
well I go to this one website called Ghost Study and people send in pics of what they think might be ghosts. There seems to be a lot of faces that happen to appear on screens that have been turned off.
I noticed the screen in your pic and it looked kind of like the ones I’ve seen at the ghost site. But if the screen was turned on or something it’s perfectly logical for there to be a face on it.
