[우리문화신문=김영조 푸른솔겨레문화연구소장]  

   Ode to the Half Moon

   Who cut the jade of Mount Kunlun

   To fashion this comb for the Weaver Girl?

   After the Cowherd departed and went away

   In her sorrow, she cast it into the blue void of heaven

In her poem “Ode to the Half Moon [詠半月],” the poet Hwang Jini described the half moon as "the comb thrown into the sky by the Weaver Girl (Jingnyeo) after her parting with the Cowherd (Gyeon-u)." Having parted from her lover after the Chilseok festival, she cast it away into the heavens because there was no one left to admire her beauty, no matter how elegantly she combed her hair. While a half moon eventually becomes a full moon, on its own, it remains only a half. Thus, people of the past called the Eollebit (wooden comb) "Wolso (月梳)"—the Moon Comb—because of its resemblance to the crescent shape.

The Ban-wolso is a comb with thick, sparse teeth, named for its likeness to a half moon. The Cultural Heritage Administration officially refers to the artisans who craft these wooden combs as "Moksojang (木梳匠)," using the Chinese character 'so (梳)' for comb. Master Lee Sang-geun, a practitioner of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Chungcheongnam-do, has carried on this family legacy for six generations. Traditional Eollebit come in various forms and uses: the Sangtu-bit used by men to tie topknots, the Eum-yangso with sparse teeth on one side and fine teeth on the other, the Myeon-bit for tidying side hair, and the Gareuma-bit for parting hair.

Nowadays, young people exchange gifts on commercial holidays like Valentine’s Day, White Day, or Pepero Day—often unaware that these dates were popularized by marketing tactics, such as those by Japan's Morinaga Confectionery in 1958. In contrast, men in the past would include a comb in the Saju-ham (a box containing the groom's birth data) when proposing marriage. If the bride-to-be accepted the comb, it signified her consent to the marriage, carrying the subtle promise that she would wait for her groom while neatly grooming her hair with that very comb. Perhaps it is time for us, too, to gift an Eollebit to the ones we love.