The Ojack-Kyo Bridge

Tales & Traditions

The Ojack-Kyo Bridge

A long time ago, a king married his daughter Jick Nyo to a young man named Gyun Woo. Gyun Woo always rode on the back of a cow. Jick Nyo and Gyun Woo played all the time, and did not work. Sometimes, Gyun Woo rode his cattle in the royal garden. This made a terrible mess. The king became angry.

“You two must be punished,” said the king. “Everyone else is working hard, but you two are just playing. You should finish your work.”

The king banished Gyun Woo to the east and Jick Nyo to the west.

“Since you did not finish what you started, you can only see each other once a year at the Milky Way River on the seventh day in July.”

Gyun Woo and Jick Nyo lived in sadness. They loved each other so much. Finally, the first year had passed. Gyun Woo and Jick Nyo hurried to the river. They shouted each other’s names across the river, but it was too wide. Their tears fell in the Milky Way River. The lovers’ tears turned into a rainstorm. The birds of the land became worried.

“We are in big trouble. If we don’t do something, everything will wash away. We need to make a bridge across the Milky Way,” said the wise pigeon. “Crows and jays, would you build a bridge across the Milky Way?”

“Yes, we will try.”

Another year passed. All the crows and jays in the world gathered. They flew up high to the Milky Way, and flapped their wings to make a bridge. At last, Gyun Woo and Jick Nyo walked across the river. From then on, every year on the seventh day of July crows and jays built a bridge across the Milky Way, and stopped the floods. They called the bridge “Ojack-kyo,” which means, “a bridge built by crows and jays.” It teaches us that the most impossible tasks can be completed when everyone works together.