Lotus Latern Festival 2011

The Lotus Latern Festival is a festival celebrating Buddha's birthday and I've been told it's the biggest Buddhist festival in Asia. Anyway, it's the weekend before Buddha's birthday, which is based on the Lunar calendar so the actual dates are different every year. Anyway, the festival itself is a weekend affair, although events at the main Buddhist temples in Seoul-- Jogyesa and Bongeunsa. The festival includes a parade, traditional Korean games, street performers, and looking at all the lanterns around the area.

The official site of Korean tourism states: "According to Buddhist belief, the lighting of a lotus-shaped lantern symbolizes a devotion to performing good deeds and lighting up the dark parts of the world that are filled with agony. The lantern-lighting practice was developed throughout the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties and has been preserved through public demonstrations such as the lotus lantern service (a Buddhist memorial service held nationwide) and the lotus lantern parade."

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to the street festival side of events on Sunday, because after the parade we all left to celebrate Lucy's birthday. And like all trips into Hongdae, I didn't get home until 8 am. But, next year I will definitely see what the Buddhist street festival has to offer. :-D

During the parade, I was with a HUGE group of foreigners... most of them had pre-gamed, so they were DRUNK during the parade. But, because there were over 15 foreigners in one section and we were at the end of the parade, we were easily noticed by the people in the parade. We got lots of waves, high-fives, and "Hello!"s, especially from students. I guess we reminded them of their teachers, so they were really excited to see us. ^.^  Anyway, we got a lot of LOVE from the parade, as you'll see in the videos. <3