Unwithered Longing

There are many folk stories about flowers in South Korea. Among them, Camelia has a very sad story. A Long, long time ago, there was one married couple loving each other. The couple had to be apart for some reason, the husband left with a promise to be reunited soon, but he never came back. The wife ended up dying after a long wait day and night. Above her grave, a kind of colorful flowers started blooming in fall and fell on it in winter time. People thought those flowers exactly looked like the wife. Camelia does not get frozen even in the snowy winter. When it falls, a whole blossom drops on the ground, not as scattered petals. People believe this symbolizes the wife’s unwithered longing toward the husband that was not fully bloomed.