This one might require an explanation. In Buddhism, the pig represents greed, anger, ignorance, selfishness, and just overall the qualities that make up a bad person. It occurred to me though that redemption or forgiveness (for anything, it doesn't have to be spiritual) should be an option to anyone willing to accept it. A pig should be permitted to follow a path of forgiveness if they so choose to, even by the practices of people that have denigrated its stature in the world.
Interesting idea~ quite funny too haha~I never knew about the pig being symbolized as all of those negative stuff, though my family is Buddhist-based. I only knew that the pig was symbolized as lazy, eat a lot, and dirty, but other than that it also symbolizes prosperity and wealth, not just those bad qualities, since they are fat and do not have to work much the entire of their life so it can be happiness and perhaps luck too :D
ReplyDeleteIt is also interesting that Buddhist monks are naturally vegetarians, they are skinny, while pigs eat whatever they are given, anything~ and they are fat so it is quite funny~
Tina, so sorry I never saw your comment. I'm bad at keeping up with Blogger sometimes. I actually hadn't thought about that last part about Buddhist monks being vegetarians.
DeleteI think the first place I learned this symbolism about pigs was from watching some special features with Hayao Miyazaki talking about Porco Rosso and Spirited Away, and why he used pigs the way he did in those movies. The main character in Porco Rosso is as close to autobiographical as Miyazaki has ever gotten, so the guise of a pig was used as a means of denigrating himself, haha. Anyway, glad you like it.