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[WHY] What is a 'conception dream' and why is it so common in Korea?

Published: 21 Mar. 2026, 07:00

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

A newborn holds the finger of its mother at a hospital in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on July 11, 2024. [YONHAP]

Before RM of BTS was born, his grandmother dreamed of a snake biting the back of her ankle in a field of red peppers, he recounted in an interview during a music program on KBS in 2021. Not an ordinary dream, this was taemong (a conception dream) that foreshadowed the success and influence that RM would later have as the leader of the megahit boy band.

The idea of conception dreams may be unfamiliar to international readers, but taemong is very commonplace among Koreans. Ask any person what their taemong was, they would tell you about dreams their parents or grandparents had featuring dragons, flowers, peaches, tigers and the like — and not just talk about these traditional symbols, but a share a whole story.

“When I had my daughter, I had a taemong even before I had my pregnancy confirmed by my doctor,” said Park Yeon-su, a mother of a now-two-year-old child. “I was dreaming of eating a variety of fruit, and when I picked and bit on an apple, the apple burst into flames and I heard birdsong. I immediately knew that this was a taemong.”

So what is a taemong, exactly? Is it only dreamt by Koreans? What are the mythological and ethnographic origins of taemong? And what can your taemong “predict” about you?

Singer RM of boy band BTS speaks during a CEO Summit as part of the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting at a venue in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang, on Oct. 29, 2025. [NEWS1]

What is a taemong?

Taemong is a dream mostly dreamt by the mother of a conceived child before the child is born, but sometimes, the father, grandparents or sometimes even close friends can dream taemong.

Taemong has its roots in Korean mythology and ethnography, going all the way back to tales of the Goguryeo (37 B.C. to A.D. 668) and Silla (57 B.C. to A.D. 935) dynasties’ emperors and heroes. What began as conception dreams mentioned in oral traditions starting from such myths became more commonly mentioned among ordinary people. As time passed, written records on taemong emerged, solidifying the concept.

Taemong can be found in a surprising number of traditional stories and literature of Korea, including the famous “Tale of Shim Cheong,” about a devoted daughter to a blind father, and “The Story of Hong Gildong,” about a legendary Robin Hood-like figure who stole goods from the rich for the poor.

A number of celebrities in modern day Korea have also talked about their respective taemong, including Jang Won-young of girl group IVE, who said during an appearance on a television show in 2018 that her mother dreamt of a crane flying to her, and actor Suzy, who also said during a television appearance that her mother had a taemong of a silver dragon with a large flower in its mouth.

Singer Jang Won-young, of girl group IVE, poses for a photo during a showcase at Yes24 Live Hall in Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul, on Feb. 23. [NEWS1]

Types of taemong and meanings

Interpreting taemong depends on a number of factors, but foremost, some conditions must be met for a dream to be considered a taemong.

“For a dream to be interpreted as a taemong, first, the dreamer must be a pregnant woman or someone close to them,” said Cook Kyung-bok, director of the Dream Love Psychological Counseling Institute and a former adjunct professor at the KAIST Moon Soul Graduate School of Future Strategy.

“Secondly, the dream must appear during or before the pregnancy, and third, it must contain a symbol that represents the fetus in some way,” said Cook. “And lastly, taemong is a simultaneous phenomenon where the dream, a mental phenomenon, and the physical fact of pregnancy, coincide in meaning.”

A pregnant women attends a ceremony marking the Day of Expectant Woman at a hotel in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul, on Oct. 10, 2025. [NEWS1]

Looking at specific symbols that appear in a dream that could be a taemong also depend on certain circumstances, such as whether the gender of the child has already been determined, or whether the pregnancy involves just one fetus or twins, and so on.

“People might think that if they dreamt of a flower the baby might be a girl, but that’s too simple — you need to employ the philosophy of yin and yang in interpretation,” said Fred Jeremy Seligson, a former professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and author of “Oriental Birth Dreams,” a book about taemong,

“If it’s a large flower, it could mean a boy, and even in the case of dragons, which usually symbolize the male, if it’s a smaller dragon it could mean a girl.”

Some of the most frequent motifs or symbols in taemong, aside from dragons, tigers, apples and peaches, are natural imagery such as the sun, moon and stars, as well as animalistic imagery including snakes, cranes, eagles, pigs and butterflies, according to a survey of more than 1,500 accounts of taemong complied by Seligson.

A mother and baby tiger are seen at Seoul Grand Park in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi on Nov. 11, 2025. Tigers are a commonly recurring motif in Korean conception dreams. [YONHAP]

What’s the underlying psychology?

In Korean, taemong is made up of Chinese characters meaning literally “birth” ( tae) and “dream” ( mong). Simply put, taemong is a dream that is dreamt before the fertilization or birth of a child. In more complicated terms, taemong is a predictive system, a psychological phenomenon, a narrative tradition and a social ritual — all these things combined in one cultural form of storytelling, according to experts.

“Taemong can be described as a predictive system [regarding] the gender, personality and health of a future child, as a psychological phenomenon, a wish fulfillment or the representation of a life, a narrative tradition and a social ritual where people would get together to talk about their dreams,” said Prof. Seligson.

While psychologists assert that taemong cannot really be verified in a scientific manner, these conception dreams can be understood also as a “manifestation of the collective unconscious,” borrowing from Carl Jung’s theory that outlines ancestral memories, instincts and universal symbols, according to cultural psychologist Han Min.

“The brain receives far more information than humans can perceive, and this information is transmitted in some form as signals, as theorized by Jung,” said Han. “The collective unconscious plays a role in perceiving these signals and organizing experiences, which can be applied to taemong.”

A newborn baby is seen at a hospital in Goyang, Gyeonggi, on Nov. 26, 2025. [YONHAP]

“Taemong often manifest archetypal images, symbolic of the fetus, creating a meaningful coincidence between the mental phenomenon of the dream and the physical reality of pregnancy,” said Cook.

So while taemong isn’t a scientifically verified fact, psychologists often deal with the concept and it is widely recognized as a phenomenon incorporating imagery, motifs and symbolism.

Most Koreans are quite familiar with taemong. Although there are no official data on conception dreams, a search on online forums actively visited and used by pregnant couples shows that examples of and discussion on taemong are quite widespread and frequent.

“When I had my taemong for my daughter, I shared the experience with my friends who were also pregnant, and they all had their own taemong stories,” said Park. “My mother also told me of the taemong my father had had when she was pregnant with me, and I think it’s fascinating how that taemong was quite similar to the one I had for my daughter.”

Baby shoes and other children's products are seen on display at a baby fair held at Kintex in Goyang, Gyeonggi, on Nov. 27. [NEWS1]

Is taemong exclusive to Korea?

One might wonder whether these conception dreams are only dreamt in Korea. While similar accounts have been recorded and reported in other East Asian societies and sometimes even in the West, in no other culture is the dreams so commonly mentioned and talked about as a cultural norm in Korea, according to experts.

“Korea has a particularly developed folklore and tradition about conception dreams or taemong,” said Choi Won-oh, a professor of Korean Literature at Kwangju National University of Education. “The most striking sign of this in that in classic Korean novels, the protagonist’s birth often begins with a taemong. For folkloric elements to be so heavily reflected in the canon of literature, they must be universally ingrained as a cultural concept.”

Although similar accounts of conception dreams can be found in neighboring countries such as Japan and China, they are not culturally embedded to the degree or frequency that taemong is in Korea, according to Choi.

“It’s important to understand that this is a characteristic distinctive to Korean culture,” said Choi.

Parents and newborns participate in a program teaching parents how to massage babies at a venue inside Seoul City Hall in Jung District, central Seoul, on Oct. 10, 2019. [NEWS1]

Prof. Seligson argues that taemong is the “underlying spirit” of Korean civilization that influences not only traditional but also modern culture, and one that should be considered an “intangible national treasure.”

From a cultural psychology perspective, the affinity and sensitivity that Koreans have toward concepts such as taemong can be explained by relating to the “Korean mentality of prioritizing feelings and subjective judgment,” according to Han.

“Koreans are more sensitive than people from other cultures in terms of receiving and processing unconscious information, and have developed a culture that shares and communicates this information more at the collective unconscious level,” said Han.

Mothers and children attend a ceremony marking the Day of Expectant Woman at a hotel in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul, on Oct. 10, 2025. [NEWS1]

Roots of the dreams

Since the idea taemong is so widespread, and mostly exclusive to Korea, the origins of the conception dreams can also be traced back to traditional mythology and ethnographic records.

“Taemong stems from Koreans’ long-held desire and customs related to the continuation of one’s lineage,” said Cook. “Our ancestors had a longstanding custom of pouring clean, purified water and praying for healthy offspring, and the root of taemong can be thought of in relation to this.”

The origins of taemong can also be found in Korean mythology, especially in founding myths that tell stories of how dynasties and royal lineages started, according to Prof. Choi.

“The method of explaining the extraordinary nature of heroes and founders in founding myths as sacred lineages was later realized in the form of taemong,” said Choi.

The retelling and mutability — stories shifting with each recounting, the audience, mood and the development of the child in question of the taemong — are additional characteristics of the conception dreams that emerged as taemong surfaced more commonly among the Korean population.

“Taemong can be thought of also as a personal mythology, one that grows and develops with you over time,” said Loren Goodman, a professor of Creative Writing and Literature at Yonsei University, who teaches a course on taemong in literature.

A pedestrian pushes a baby stroller past a hospital in Seoul on Feb. 23, 2023. [NEWS1]

The modernization of taemong

Although traditional accounts of taemong mostly involve natural and mythical imagery as the aforementioned dragons, flowers, peaches, tigers and apples, modern experiences of taemong have evolved to include contemporary and globalized symbols.

“The more exposure a person has to the world and learning, the more widespread possibilities they have of incorporating such symbols into their dreams,” said Prof. Seligson. He added that some experience of taemong that have appeared in his research have mentioned secular icons such as Santa Claus and foreign heads of state.

The modern trend of sharing stories of taemong in itself are testament to the enduring cultural significance of taemong, noted Choi.

A newborn baby is seen at a hospital in Goyang, Gyeonggi, on Nov. 26, 2025. [YONHAP]

“Precisely because taemong are so ingrained in our culture, such stories can now be found online and on other platforms,” said Choi. “The very fact that such topics is being brought up shows that taemong are still alive and well in modern society.”

Even as accounts of taemong vary, the enduring appeal of taemong may lie less in prediction than in storytelling, according to those who have studied the conception dreams. A dream that once appears briefly during pregnancy can become a narrative retold over decades, one that evolves as the child grows and the family revisits the meaning behind it.

For many Koreans, then, the dream itself may matter less than the story it creates. Long after the pregnancy is over, families continue to recall and reinterpret the images, weaving them into the identity of the child and the memory of their birth.

Whether seen as symbolism, psychology or folklore, taemong remains a strong and ongoing way for many Koreans to begin telling the story of a life.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]