My dinner with 영란 - A postscript

After the lovely dinner and lively conversation with 영란, the Sanchon Hunjang started becoming curious about just how many people around him believe in fortune telling.

So I started asking people if they've had their fortune read. Nearly everyone had.

I also asked, "did you check your 궁합 before you got married?" Turns out that nearly everyone in my decidedly non-random survey had checked. Only the extremely devout Christians were exceptions.

This clearly was leading to the inescapable conclusion that, with the exception of Christians who are laced a little too straight, Koreans are all a superstitious lot with disposable income to blow on the occult.

Then the Sanchon Hunjang realized that he had missed the real question of "why?" So I went back and asked. Turns out that most people had done the simple fortune telling thing on a lark and that they didn't put any stock in it. But if this is the case, why would anyone check their marital bliss barometer with a soothsayer before the wedding? That answer was interesting. Not because either of them put any stock in it, but because there are bound to be some not-so-pleasant days in married life. And when there's a fight, someone--be it wife, husband, mother-in-law, whoever--is bound to drag out the "we were never ever meant for each other in the first place" argument. So it's better just to eliminate that possiblity up front by making sure bride and groom have compatible zoologies.

Makes sense to me.

That's the same logic that the Sanchon Hunjang used to send the wife for 2 months of intensive post-partum recovery. Otherwise, every little pain or soreness would harken back to the moment of 산후조리만 제대로 했더라면...