Lighting of the Lanterns Festival

So one Monday evening, a couple foreigners and I decided we would head to this “Lantern Festival,” a beginning to “HiSeoul” festival and to a celebration leading up to Buddah’s birthday. It was an evening full of surprises, as most of my mini adventures around Seoul are turning out.

The evening started out very solemn. There were people with lanterns everywhere and lots of women in traditional Korean dress. Several groups sang and several people, well MEN, spoke and prayed. Then everyone started a parade of sorts around the plaza (at City Hall). I joined because I figured – why the heck not? A man playing a percussion instrument of sorts lead a chant as we processed, chanting along the way. After the parade, people were trying to give us all these lanterns – I guess so they didn’t have to carry them? I got two of them, one large and one small (and yes Leenie-Beenie, they are yours assuming I can get them to you somehow).

Then the unexpected blindsided me. This techno-like-get-happy-and-dance music came on and we were lead in a series of dances that resemble the Macarena and Electric Slide combined. I was completely dumb-founded, as were the other foreigners I was with, especially since most of the evening had been so solemn and prayerful. We decided to go with it and had a blast making fun of ourselves. We were some of the only foreigners and were noted as such by the main announcer at a point (not sure what he said but people turned and laughed). I felt like a celebrity at points because I can’t tell you how many times I had my picture taken throughout that night – at least 200-300 by various reporters, spectators, and the like.

And so ends the entry to one of my first Korean cultural experiences. Enjoy the pictures and video!

Seoul Plaza aka City Hall - note the giant Lantern

A few of our group ready to see some lanterns get lit

Traditional Korean Dress

Monks - which you aren't supposed to take pictures of normally in temples or something like that

A Boy and His Lantern

Guys with funny hats that we thought were gonna dance but all they did was play the drums for like 2 minutes

The pretty pretty lanterns (of which I have several for souvenirs)

Parading with the Koreans

The friggin' huge lantern (note processing Koreans to the right and around)

Joining the strange dances....hopefully video to come later!

These ladies were quite good

With some of our favorite ladies (they helped us learn the dances...plus they just looked cool in their outfits)

And I took this awesome pic of these crazy kids jumping