Mongdal-gwisin (몽달귀신)

The spirit of a young man who left this world without ever taking a bride. All he left behind was a betrothal never fulfilled and a wedding robe never worn. It is the lingering weight of that regret, given shape and set adrift, that is called the Mongdal-gwisin.

It is said to drift especially close to those of marrying age, hovering near them with an air that is difficult to distinguish from envy or from longing. It attaches itself to those on the eve of marriage, sowing small discord and causing paths to cross wrongly. There are whispers that the nearer the wedding day draws, the thicker its presence becomes.

It is regarded as the destined counterpart, in the world below, of the virgin ghost — the Son-gaksi. The death-wedding, or sahon (死婚), in which the two solitary spirits are joined through a ritual performed among the living, was an age-old custom meant to release their grief. A wedding robe fashioned from paper is set alight, and both names are called aloud together, so that the two may walk the road to the afterlife as one.

A Mongdal-gwisin left unattended, with no sahon performed, is said to linger far longer. Even now, in certain regions, the old people quietly pass among themselves the saying that the spirit of a young man forgotten without a single family member left to call his name is the most tenacious of all.