The Lotus Lantern Festival is in preparation and celebration of Buddha's Birthday. The weekend before his birthday, they light the lanterns and have all kinds of festivities, including cultural performances, crafts and a parade. It was extremely fun and I can't wait to go again next year!
Saturday was the day of the parade, so our group split up and enjoyed different parts of the city during the daytime before meeting back up for the parade. Malia, Kaleena and I decided to shop a bit, then head to Vatos for some awesome Mexican food. We then went on the hunt for a great little brewery we had heard about to enjoy some GOOD beer. Magpie Brewery was started by 2 expats and they have great craft beers, something that is very hard to find in Korea. We then headed to another craft brewery, Craftworks, that is located just down the street, but is run by Koreans. They had a wonderful seasonal brew, as well as a great IPA. After having a relaxing day and enjoying some of the best beer I've come across in Korea, we headed to meet up with the rest of the group to enjoy the night parade.
I never would've imagined how many people were in this parade. It was insane! Other than the huge lit up lanterns (some with people on them), they also had groups doing performances, dancing and playing instruments, etc, as well as large groups of people lined up carrying lanterns. These large groups ranged from little kids to the elderly, people dressed in their normal clothes to costumes or hanbok. They were great to watch.... At one point, we noticed that there were foreigners that had decided to walk with the people in the parade... crazy how relaxed the security was... we could've just joined along for the walk!
After the parade, we headed down to the end point where there was a stage set up for dances and singing. They had fireworks and confetti. It was such a blast... Hundreds of people gathered around watching at first, then we were drug into the middle to dance along with them... there were people in circles doing traditional dances, people trying to mimic the dances from the stages, and many people formed into "trains". So much fun, AND my friends and I ended up on the Korean news (you can see it here, around the 17:20 mark)!
The next day, Malia, Kaleena and I headed back to Iteawon to grab some breakfast... we stumbled upon this WONDERFUL restaurant called Suzi's, where they have great western-style food and a deli where you can order take out. We grabbed their home made spinach artichoke cream cheese spread and a jalapeno bagel for the road and headed out to the train station....
It was a wonderful weekend yet again!
More pictures here.
Saturday was the day of the parade, so our group split up and enjoyed different parts of the city during the daytime before meeting back up for the parade. Malia, Kaleena and I decided to shop a bit, then head to Vatos for some awesome Mexican food. We then went on the hunt for a great little brewery we had heard about to enjoy some GOOD beer. Magpie Brewery was started by 2 expats and they have great craft beers, something that is very hard to find in Korea. We then headed to another craft brewery, Craftworks, that is located just down the street, but is run by Koreans. They had a wonderful seasonal brew, as well as a great IPA. After having a relaxing day and enjoying some of the best beer I've come across in Korea, we headed to meet up with the rest of the group to enjoy the night parade.
Craftworks Brewery
I never would've imagined how many people were in this parade. It was insane! Other than the huge lit up lanterns (some with people on them), they also had groups doing performances, dancing and playing instruments, etc, as well as large groups of people lined up carrying lanterns. These large groups ranged from little kids to the elderly, people dressed in their normal clothes to costumes or hanbok. They were great to watch.... At one point, we noticed that there were foreigners that had decided to walk with the people in the parade... crazy how relaxed the security was... we could've just joined along for the walk!
After the parade, we headed down to the end point where there was a stage set up for dances and singing. They had fireworks and confetti. It was such a blast... Hundreds of people gathered around watching at first, then we were drug into the middle to dance along with them... there were people in circles doing traditional dances, people trying to mimic the dances from the stages, and many people formed into "trains". So much fun, AND my friends and I ended up on the Korean news (you can see it here, around the 17:20 mark)!
The next day, Malia, Kaleena and I headed back to Iteawon to grab some breakfast... we stumbled upon this WONDERFUL restaurant called Suzi's, where they have great western-style food and a deli where you can order take out. We grabbed their home made spinach artichoke cream cheese spread and a jalapeno bagel for the road and headed out to the train station....
It was a wonderful weekend yet again!
More pictures here.
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