It was a gorgeous spring Sunday and we decided to celebrate Buddha's birthday with some friends at the Lotus Lantern Festival near Anguk in Seoul. It is a week-long festival, we even get Friday off work this week due to the celebrations.
The streets were dancing with vibrant colored lanterns bobbing in the slight wind. Foreigners and Koreans alike poured out onto the streets to partake in all the festivities. Monks smiled and sang and women adorned in traditional hanboks danced and swayed. We meandered around the Buddhist temple, listening to chanting and singing, our spirits merry.
We witnessed a few parades and concerts and I even got my face painted with beautiful blue and white flowers. We had such a fun time checking out all the booths and activities. They had all sorts of interesting foods, games, yoga and martial arts exhibits, and activity stations for kids and grownups alike.
Arts and craft booths were EVERYWHERE, and I had quite the field day stopping at as many as I could and trying out all the different techniques. I didn't want to make everyone wait for me so I passed on incense making, candle making, and soap making, but I stopped to paint our wishes on a wall, create a shell powder print, do some red and black calligraphy lotus flowers on spun paper, and also do a wood block painting. It was so nice to have so many opportunities to be artistic in one day, haha. Once again at the wood block painting station, several Koreans stopped to watch over my shoulder. Nick took some amazing shots of me painting.
We really enjoyed being in the middle of the swirling, happy crowd of people that pulsed along the lively streets on such a beautiful, sunny Sunday.
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