¡°Is ¡®Today¡¯s Fortune¡¯ superstition?¡±

When we read the newspaper each morning, we seldom miss a column called ¡°Today¡¯s Fortune,¡± the Korean version of the Western horoscope. It advises the reader to act depending on the time and place or not to covet undue profit. Although the advice is given in a single word, the reader is immensely interested in how the word will be related to his or her day. The reader often recalls his or her ¡°Today¡¯s Fortune¡¯¡¯ when the day comes to a close.

The readers of the column do not much care whether someone laughs at them for being superstitious because those things which are despised as superstition are rational in their own way.

Superstition means the belief that deludes and is a negative word used for faith that deludes the world and deceives the people. Yet what would it be like if this superstition did not cause damage to others, and instead was helpful, even a very little, to living in this world?

Let¡¯s suppose there is a man who, according to the traditional belief in the predominance of man over woman, believes he will be unlucky all day long if a woman happens to cross his path at dawn, and his first client happens to be a woman. He will knit his brows or mutter angrily at the woman who happens to drop in his store as the day¡¯s first client. The woman will be displeased and feel sorrow and rage for living in a patriarchal society. His thought and action are a form of violence against an innocent woman and consequently are regarded as detrimental to the world in which men and women have to live together. In this case, the man can be said to have a superstitious attitude. Then, why did he adopt such a superstition?

No one can know in advance what will happen in the future. Since they do not now what will take place tomorrow, people always feel ill at ease. Yet, rather than suffering from an uneasy feeling and being wary of the future, it would be more effective for one to handle his or her affairs remaining confident that everything will go well. It was obviously very rare for a woman to go around early in the morning in a society that distinctively classified the roles of men and women inside and outside the home. If this rare case is an unlucky time, most other cases are not unlucky. So, many people can spend the day expecting good fortune and with an optimistic view.

But the problem is that there are some men who still maintain such an attitude in this time when the world has changed and women¡¯s social participation has become more active. If there is such a man who still holds fast to this kind of attitude, he is being cruel to himself. To such a man, everyday will be unlucky and will bring curses upon him. The day will be unfortunate not only to him, but also to the innocent, and his faith is superstition without any doubt.

Nonetheless, my habit to read ¡°Today¡¯s Fortune¡± and to view my life today from every angle is not superstition. There is nothing in my habit that inflicts damage on others. In fact, it is helpful to living in this world with the people around me.

Chang Suk-Man: Researcher at the Korean Religious Research Institute: Ph. D in the Science of Religion