#110. 수호랑 -- the story behind the Olympic mascot

Winter Olympics are truly my favourite world event! I spend all of my evenings watching the games, so this is going to be a short post (so that I can go off and watch more Olympics events -- I have to admit, I cheer for Team Canada!)

I wanted to tell you a little bit about the adorable Olympics mascot, which is a white tiger named 수호랑 (Soohorang).

Being a mascot is a big job, as a mascot symbolizes many things; the spirit of the Olympics, as well as the host. And I think 수호랑 is doing this job admirably.

First of all, tigers have always stood for the Koreans. Koreans believe that the Korean peninsula looks like a crouching tiger, and being the strongest creatures within the Korean mountains (and there are many of them), many villages adopted tigers as their guardian deity within the traditional Korean shamanism, or 수호신 in Korean ("수호" means to guard, and "신" means deity). It should also be noted that in the Korean shamanism, albino animals typically symbolizes good omen -- a white tiger is, therefore, very special indeed!

Tigers also universally symbolize strength and power, as do the Olympics athletes.

Then there is the name of this mascot, "수호랑." You can already see where the word "수호" comes from; it symbolizes the Koreans' hopes that this mythical white tiger will stand guard against all evil things, and lead the Olympics to a success, while protecting the athletes and the audience from bad fortunes.

The word "랑" is also interesting to me. Officially, it comes from the Korean word "호랑이" meaning tiger, so that the name of the mascot "수호랑" means "protecting tiger." However, the nuance of the word is even more beautiful to me, because the suffix "-랑" was traditionally used (primarily in the Three Kingdoms era, and even into the Joseon Dynasty) as an honorific. For example, if your name was "준호," people would have called you "준호랑" to show some degree of respect -- the nuance is not unlike the "Mr.-" prefix, or "-chan" or "-sama" suffix in Japanese. So "수호랑" also taps some thousand years into the Korean history, and pays respect to this tiger deity who protects us.

There is also the fact that Korea hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics, so the Olympics have returned to Korea in exactly 30 years! The mascot of the 1988 Summer Olympics was also a tiger named "호돌이" (which could be roughly translated to "tiger boy" -- see this post for an explanation of the suffix "-돌이.") So, Koreans wanted to continue with another tiger mascot for the sake of continuity, and the back story is that 수호랑 is the son of 호돌이!

Finally, you may have noticed that some events do not award the medals at the venue, and they hold a separate ceremony for the medals. This started in the 2006 Torino Olympics to make sure that the athletes and the audience were not spending an unreasonable amount of time in the cold; so the athletes get a small souvenir at the venue, and the official ceremony with the anthems and the medals are held elsewhere.

The souvenirs for the medalling athletes were, not surprisingly, a stuffed 수호랑! However, these limited-edition 수호랑 dolls are special because they are wearing these adorable hats:

I have been searching everywhere to buy one of these dolls with this hat on, but it seems that only the Olympic athletes can get them. If you know otherwise, PLEASE let me know!

The reason I am going crazy over these hats is because these hats also hold a very special place in the Korean history.

In a past post, I had talked about how being a public servant has always been high on the Koreans' list of good jobs, thanks to its security and prestige. Thanks to a tradition that spans hundreds of years, the public servants of Korea are selected in a nationwide exam.

It was (and still is!) a big deal to pass these exams (passing this exam is called "급제"); if you passed with the top grades, called 장원급제, it was even a bigger deal (not anymore). These winners of the national exam would be employed in a more important position, and the king himself would congratulate the winner on his academic achievements. Having a winner come out of your village was an occasion to celebrate; and the winner would be given some time to come back home, and share this happy moment with his (no women were allowed to write these exams) family and friends.

An old drawing of a winner (장원급제자, or the person who achieved 장원급제) of the national exam.

When the winner returned home, he would be draped in a silk gown, and he would be wearing a special hat called 어사화 (literally, flowers "화" given "사" by the king "어"). These were paper flowers hanging in willow branches, that you stuck behind your hat. Being able to wear these paper flowers were a privilege, and something that all men dreamed of!

And now, the Olympic athletes symbolically get to wear these 어사화, through the Olympic mascot 수호랑. Watching these venue ceremonies where these athletes are presented with the flowers from the king fills this history nerd with such pride and happiness -- I love that the Koreans are sharing a small piece of their history with the world.

Finally, I leave you with a completely adorable video (in English, Korean subtitles) of foreigners trying to figure out the purpose of 어사화. I am off to watch more Olympics games, though!