Bokjori - Bamboo Strainer

A bok jori (복조리) is a bamboo strainer shaped like a dipper.

Traditionally,the bokjori was bought from travelling merchants on or near the eve of Lunar New Year. They were hung on support pillars, on walls, either in the hall or kitchen or in the corner of a room, between midnight of the last day of the year and the dawn of New Year’s Day. For new year, they
were often decorated with colourful string with coins or sweets placed inside them. Later they would be used in daily living.

The bokjori was believed to bring the family good luck in the new year by preventing bad luck from leaping into the new year from the old. The Korean letter 복 (bok) means good fortune. Originally the bokjori was used to dip up washed rice; to remove small stones and straw.

In some regions, a rake was hung instead of a dipper. The rake symbolised good luck that would be gathered or raked up. 

Factory make dippers can be bought all over Korea as souvenir.
There are also various arts & crafts programs where foreign visitors and residents can learn to make them, including folk villages, museums, etc. Modern ones come in smaller sizes than the traditional bokjori.


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Photo: www.korean-arts.com/newsletters/080131.htm