Imagery
2010 Seoul World Lantern Festival
This is a more traditional Korean scene, and stands at the beginning of a series of Korean lanterns. The two posts are jangseung, or guardian spirit poles. Sometimes you will see these called “totem poles,” but they are not, in fact, totems. A totem is a mythical (generally animal) ancestor of a group of people. If the Korean people had a totem, it would probably be the bear, from the myth of Dangun. These wooden posts, though, represent guardian spirits—on the right is the “Great General Under Heaven” and on the left is the “Female General Under Earth,” to offer literal translations of the letters on them. The house beneath them is a traditional thatched roof house and represents a village, as these posts traditionally stand at the entrance to villages.