Of the most interesting visits to Inwangsan was one I took with some coworkers and friends a few summer's ago.
As we climbed the hill, passing through the area where the shamans call upon the resident ghosts, we passed one male shaman in a traditional white, hemp robe and horsehair hat with an especially elaborate spread set up, including a full pig with about a thousand dollars in cash stuffed in its snout. (most people can only afford a pig's head. He didn't seem bothered at all by the crowd of curious foreigners and actually greeted us and encouraged us to take photos. Usually we would have been encouraged to keep on our way.
When I recently showed Eunbong the photos later, she was surprised when she read the paper directing the intention of the ceremony. The ceremony was commissioned by KBS, one of the top three broadcasting companies in Korea, and asked that their upcoming "drama" (read: soap opera) would be a huge success and that it not attract any gossip (a major concern in Korea, many famous actresses/actors have committed suicide over gossip). It would be the American equivalent of maybe HBO having a ceremony sacrificing a pig for the success of the final season of Game of Thrones, which would actually be fitting, though a closer analogy might be ABC doing one for All My Children. The names on the paper were also big industry names. Eunbong said that if I were Korean and knew what that paper said when it was new, I might have made some big online news with it and actually caused a lot of gossip with it. The ceremony must have worked!
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