Monday, May 24, 2010

Lotus Lantern Festival

Two weeks ago was the Lotus Lantern Festival celebrating the birth of Buddha. I got the the festival really late and only saw the parade, missed my chance to make a lotus. =( Regardless it was really nice and I loved seeing all the Lanterns all over. I saw one get burned while in the parade! Good thing the lady stomped it out before it caught onto something. Enjoy!
In front of the temple. Lanters lined the roofs and it was packed inside.
The start of the parade with traditional instruments.
Monks and red lanterns.
It was hard to get a good picture. There was rows and rows of people in the parade! Never saw a parade with this much people ever.

These two light statues were really cute.
Buddha on an elephant.
It was a fire breathing peacock. I couldn't take the picture in time to get the fire.
A very colorful dragon, I think this one was fire breathing too.


Many of the streets were blocked off for this festival and there were so many people watching! I do miss going to the temple and lighting incense. Temples in Korea are just not the same, so many of them seem so generic. I guess I just have to venture even further out of Seoul to find a unique temple.

1 comment:

  1. whoa! that's pretty awesome! there were some stuff going on in sj buddhist temples but nothing this big and no parade.. i didn't know korea still have buddhist believers. i thought most of them already converted to christianity?

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