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Myths & Legends (k)South Korea

10 Creepy Korean Legends

This week we will bring you 10 Creepy Korean Legends! Some are slightly like the Japanese ones, while others are very commonly seen in horror movies. Let’s start this weeks creepy legends!

10) Cho-nyo Guishin or Virginal ghosts


(Source)

They are often found in abandoned buildings, such as Hospitals, schools, cemeteries, bathrooms and more. They basically all have long hair covering their faces with sullen features, waring white garbs… Does it ring a bell? This sounds like a fairly common horrorstory character! However, you will know when you are in the presence of a virgin ghost when the temperature or the direction of the wind suddenly changes, or when you suddenly feel chilly.. is it only me or is it getting cold in here?

9) Haunted toilets
Another bathroom story (That’s right, not Bedroom, bathroom). As if the Japanese bathroom story wasn’t bad enough, Koreans are very good as well. One of the stalls, towards the back, is where a girl killed herself and now.. you’d guess it, She’s haunting it! Girls whispers, toilets that flush by themselves and the door that suddenly shuts while no gusts are around. Some say that if you are all alone in the bathroom you can hear her cry, others say that she watches you from the mirror. Either way, the presence of it doesn’t give a safe feeling..

8) Red ink
This is more of a myth. Red pens tend to bring bad luck. If you write a name in write ink, the person willl get bad luck or maybe even die from it. That’s what they say. So now it’s time to think twice before you write the name of your crush in red ink, surrounded by heart shapes!

7) cockroach tampons
Say What? That’s right! Cockroaches in your tampon.. If that isn’t enough to make you shiver, continue reading. Cockroaches are everywhere but this Korean urban legend makes it even worse! According to this story, they layed eggs in a girl’s tampon. When the girl’s stomach started to hurt badly she went to the hospital, only to hear the eggs had hatched inside her uterus!… let’s just thank god that this is just a legend, however, apparently they have found parts of bugs in tampons and diapers in South Korea..

6) Killing Fans
It’s a hot summer night. The only way to cool down is having a fan running directly at you.. or… maybe it’s better to not have one! Many Koreans believe the urban legend of death by a fan! They say the fans suck oxygen away from the sleeping people, suffocating them. They also believe the fan causes your body so much that you will die from hypothermia.. Chilly..

5) Headphones
There is a Korean folk tale that you should never listen to your MP3-player at a high volume. This will cause you getting kidnapped. Since you won’t be paying full attention to your surroundings kidnappers will speed up to you with a car and then pull you inside. Maybe bulletin boards have these kind of abductions as a public service announcement.

4) Organ taxi
Imagine this. After an evening of full party hardy, you want to go home. Oh No! The public transport doesn’t go at this hour! let’s take a taxi.. suddenly you found yourself struggling as the cabdriver stabs a needle in your neck, making you go numb and out. The next thing you know is waking up in an abandoned farm field, all bleeding from your stomach. The next day you visit the doctor, which reveals that one of your kidneys… is GONE!

This urban legend grew popular after a shared Kakaotalk (Korean Whatsapp) conversation, which warned about those kind of taxi drivers!

3) Blood sucking oysters


A man fell and hurt his knee. He suffered a deep cut, so he washed and bandaged the wound. After a few days it started itching like crazy. At first he was reluctant to remove the bandage, fearing the state his knee would be, but once he removed it he found an oyster covering the wound and his knee. He believed he fell onto oyster eggs that gotten into his skin, hatched and now fed on his blood! Sounds like a weird Spongebob character, except without the bloody part..

2) cockroach pores


A man was plagues with acne. reading online about remedies and new ways of cleansing his skin he found the following thing: All that he needed to do was to catch a cockroach and place it under his pillow. He did as said and caught one. he placed it under his pillow before he went to bed. The next morning he woke up, the cockroach was gone. He went to the mirror and saw it was gone! all happy he went to school, however the next morning his face was sore and itchy. When he took a closer look he found that his pores had een filled with cockroach eggs! Ew!!

1) sesame seeds


One day, a woman obsessed with beauty, asked a healer for a cream that would keep her skin youthful. The healer suggested the woman to place sesame seeds on her body and soak herself in a bath. The woman tries this as soon as she is home. Her mother wondered why she took so long so she knocks on the door, “Just a minute!” The woman said from the bathroom. after a while she still hasn’t left, so once again the mom knocks. The same thing came from the bathroom. The mother, now curious of what took so long opened the dor, finding her daughter picking out the sesame seeds that rooted in her pores. That’s what I’d call “Creepy skin food!”

Sources: Wikipedia, google

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