Sosamshin (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

: 소삼신, literally ''Birth Goddess of the Cow'') is a

Gashin In Korean shamanism, Gasin (, literally ''House's God'') are a branch of deities believed to protect the various objects and rooms of the house, such as jangdok or the kitchen. The Gasin faith is the faith based on worshipping these deities. T ...

, or

household deity A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a common belief in paganism as well as in folklore across many parts of the world. Household deities fit int ...

, in

Korean mythology Korean mythology ( ) is the group of myths told by historical and modern Koreans. There are two types: the written, literary mythology in traditional histories, mostly about the founding monarchs of various historical kingdoms, and the much l ...

. As her name reveals, she is the goddess of the birth of cattle, just as Samshin is the goddess of human birth.

Etymology

In the

Korean language Korean ( South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographic ...

,
So
' refers to

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

.'Samshin' is the birth goddess for the humans. 'Sosamshin' is a

joining Join may refer to: * Join (law), to include additional counts or additional defendants on an indictment *In mathematics: ** Join (mathematics), a least upper bound of sets orders in lattice theory ** Join (topology), an operation combining two topo ...

of these two words.

Worship

Mostly, Sosamshin was worshipped as ''Gungeong''. The term ''Gungeong'' refers to the worship of a deity without a particular ritual, venerating them only in the mind. Sosamshin was properly worshipped in only the four days before and after the birth of a

. If a cow was pregnant, the family held a feast to Sosamshin in the

stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

, asking the deity to aid the cow in her delivery. Clear water was sacrificed to Sosamshin. When a cow was having delivery, the family sacrificed steamed rice, other dishes, and dirty water to Sosamshin. The sacrifice was then fed to the cow. After the delivery, ropes were knotted leftwards. Paper were hung on the ropes, and the ropes were stretched across the door or the stable. For four days after the delivery, people who had entered a house where someone had recently died, seen something dead, or had said something bad about the newborn cattle were forbidden to enter the house, as it was believed that if such a person came into the house, the mother would not nurse the young cattle. If the newborn cattle acted strangely, a

shaman Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...

read out an

incantation An incantation, a spell, a charm, an enchantment or a bewitchery, is a magical formula intended to trigger a magical effect on a person or objects. The formula can be spoken, sung or chanted. An incantation can also be performed during ceremo ...

. Im Gangwon region, 'San' or 'Guneung' is god of cattle. San and Guneung is similar to Sosamsin. Most of San and Guneung are in front of the stables where the cattle are located, and when the cattle is sick or trying to give birth to a baby, house owner pray in front of San and Guneung.

References

{{Korean mythology Korean mythology Cattle deities Korean goddesses Household deities