[Hashtag Korea] Korea Quiz (2) Squid Man

The successful Netflix sitcom “Squid Game” wasn’t named after the sea monster.

In South Korea, the invertebrate is a popular dish served in school cafeterias, pubs, and on family dinner tables.

People have been using the term to playfully describe one’s facial features in recent years. It is more frequent to compare males to squid than it is to compare women to squid.

On a completely separate subject, in a traditional pre-wedding rite of bringing a wedding box, known in Korean as “ham,” to the bride’s home, a guy can be seen covering his face with a real squid — a dried one. This “squid man” holds the box and is the event’s most significant player.