“Taemong” (胎夢) is a symbolic dream dreamed around the time a child is conceived — by the mother, the father, or sometimes a close family member. It is a beautiful custom long carried on in East Asia, and especially in Korean tradition. From of old, people have read the symbols in this dream to sense in advance the news of a new life, and fondly imagined what grain that child might carry.
Each taemong holds its own symbols. A great, powerful being like a dragon or tiger is read as a child of great aspiration; ripe fruit like a peach, apple, or chestnut as harvest and abundance; clear water, the sun, the moon, or a pearl as noble and bright energy. A dream of a snake or serpent nestling into one’s arms, or of flowers blooming wide, are also common taemong. These symbols become each family’s story, remaining as a warm memory told to the child one day: “When we were expecting you, we dreamed a dream like this.”
But here is something to note tenderly. Taemong is not a prophecy that fixes a child’s sex or destiny. Though old sayings would sometimes divine son or daughter by certain symbols, that is not scientific fact but only a heartfelt old custom. The true meaning of taemong lies not in being right or wrong. That a whole family greets the coming of a life with excitement and love, and clothes its beginning in story and meaning — that heart itself is the beauty of taemong.
So if you have dreamed a taemong, rather than weighing whether its symbol is good or bad, may you long keep that tender heart turned toward a new life. For whatever the dream — or even if you dreamed no special dream at all — the love that awaits a child is no different. As FortuneLeaf always does, what taemong offers is not a divination nailing down a child’s road ahead, but a soft reflection that lets you look upon the beginning of a life with love — for the best taemong is not a splendid symbol, but the devotion held in the heart that awaits that child.