The Number Four [4]

Photo Credits: http://en.paperblog.com [left] & http://haru-haru-in-seoul.eklablog.com [right]

Just like any other countries, South Korea has a specific number (e.g. 1, 13, and 21) that has bad reading to people. This number is much like the number 13 in the Western.  The said number is four [4] which signify bad luck. That is why, the fourth floor in their older buildings are usually replaced with letter “F” instead of the number 4 in elevators and/or skipped the number 4 (i.e. the floors are labeled to 1, 2, 3, 5, so on).

The origin of this superstition is most probably influenced by Korea’s early invaders (Chinese & Japanese). The Korean pronunciation of the number 4 “sa” (사) sounds similar to the same number of Chinese characters which means death. In Japan, the number 4 is associated as well with misfortune or death.