Festivals

One week ago, Kait and I went to Seoul to see the Lotus Lantern Festival that was a week-early celebration of Buddha's birthday. To give just a little background, the lotus flower is important in Buddhist beliefs because the flower grows in swamps, an example of beauty that flourishes amid the muck.

There were many Buddhists from around the world who were celebrating at this festival. I saw people from Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tibet, and many other Asian countries, but I also saw monks that were completely American, which was pretty cool to see.

The festival took place near the main walking street in Seoul, Insadong, so we all (me, Kait, Carolyn, Laura, and Sarah) enjoyed going from stall to stall to see the activities. The ladies all got their faces painted. Later, we had some traditional tea by sitting cross-legged in a stall while munching on some delicious rice cake. I and Sarah copied a sketch of a hand holding a lotus flower above a bed of clouds. Amid the stalls, there was a temple that we also checked out just off of the street. Many people gathered in this area to pray, pay their respects to the Buddha image, and to watch a slew of performances that were taking place just outside. After we got some delicious potato and pork spine soup and did a bit of browsing through the walking street, we checked out the main event: the parade.

This was definitely the highlight of the festival. The parade went on for roughly three hours, and consisted of hundreds - perhaps thousands - of people walking, dancing, or marching down the street. Also, we saw a bunch of awesome floats, depicting fire-breathing dragons, fire-breathing peacocks, a monk in a taxi, and Buddha in a helicopter -- along with a bunch of other floats that seemed more natural at a Buddhist celebration. Another thing to see was the costumes. Some of them were quite elaborate and beautiful.

Traditional food and drinks festival

Two weeks ago we went to a festival in Gyeongju that celebrated Korean traditional foods and drinks. For the most part, we saw barbecued meat and rice cakes for the traditional foods. The focus, however, was more heavily put on the traditional drinks...especially those of the alcoholic variety. Dongdongju, Maccoli, bamboo leaf wine, andong soju, and soju were all there, and, for a mere 2,ooowon, Kait and I each bought a small cup about the size of a shot glass that allowed us to go from booth to booth receiving free samples of drinks. [Dongdongju and moccoli are both similar versions of fermented rice drinks. Soju itself is a much harder version of fermented rice wine, and bamboo leaf wine is, well, bamboo-leaf flavoring mixed with soju.]

A mildly funny thing happened while Kait and I were approaching one of the stalls that gave out the drinks. There were many people with high-quality video cameras that were possibly filming for television purposes. Anyways, when we approached the stall, one such man and his reporter (equipped with a mike and everything) saw us coming. I saw these men see us as they started to get their camera/mike poised for us to approach. At this point I stopped Kait, and told her we might want to go to another stall, but just as I stopped, the men saw us stop, and they realized what we were doing, so they took some hesitant steps in our direction. Realizing that we were already committed to getting filmed drinking some free alcohol, we went ahead to the stall, which seemed to please the men very much. They asked us questions in English such as "How is the taste" and the like, so we were happy to answer them.

Herb Festival

Recently (yesterday) after our Korean language class at the local YMCA, Kait and I went to another very small festival that was celebrating the use of plants/herbs/roots/etc. We just kind of perused, and we decided that we wouldn't try the fried ginger root or pumpkin juice, though I was just a bit tempted. Also, the highlight of this festival was perhaps the giant, inflated vinyl artery (as in a human artery)that served as a play area and bouncy room for children; of course, we checked it out immediately. I am guessing that it was a random way to promote the health benefits of herbal medicines.

Anyways, that's all for now. We will post again soon, as there will definitely be a lot going on in the weeks to follow. Until then, we send our thoughts and love!